An incident has surfaced online where a Tesla is seen hitting a pole using the “Smart Summon” Valet feature. This is not the first instance where such a situation has cropped up. There are plenty of times when Tesla has been involved in some sort of mishap due to one of the autonomous features. That is the reason why a ton of people are against the idea of a car driving the passengers rather than the other way round. This time around, the fault happened with the “Smart Summon”, the much-hyped Tesla valet mode. Here are the details of what exactly went wrong with the feature.
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Tesla “Smart Summon” Valet Feature
According to this feature, your Tesla is supposed to drive to where you are standing from the parking position. The GPS of the car will recognize the spot where you are standing when you press the option on your phone. Using sensors and cameras, Tesla will navigate its way to you on its own. However, on this occasion, Tesla took a wrong turn, literally. It was supposed to steer right to get past a pole in the parking spot. But it somehow steered in the opposite direction and brushed the pole. It did manage to stop there but the scratch was incurred by then.
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The owner of the car is a software developer himself. He is very intrigued by Tesla products and technology in general but on this occasion, he was visibly disappointed. He approached the dealership to voice his protest. Unfortunately, the company refused to take responsibility for the incident. He was asked if he was in the car when this happened to which he replies “No”. They further told him that this feature is in the Beta Phase and the company is not liable for this.
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Furthermore, the insurance company did acknowledge the incident and offered to give out the damages but under the condition that this incident is termed as “collision” and not malfunctioning of the Tesla valet mode. Going forward, the adoption of autonomous vehicles is becoming a challenge because of incidents like these. The Tesla “Smart Summon” Valet feature is surely meant to enhance the convenience of the owners but it could also backfire in some cases. Therefore, it always makes sense to take these new-age features with a grain of salt and be safe while using such functions.
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