The owner of a Tesla Model Y compact electric SUV from Florida was able to put the Smart Summon feature to work in one of its best use-cases. The Model Y in the following video stood for an hour-long rain in Florida and when the rain stopped, the parking lot was filled with floodwater.
This is when the owner (Raudel Molina) remembered that his Tesla is loaded with the Full Self-Driving (FSD) package. As soon as the idea blinked in his mind, he took out his phone, opened the Tesla Mobile App, and called the car to himself, just like a pet would run for his master, his car reached him itself.
He expressed his thoughts in an Instagram post:
So it rained for like an hour and when I finally was able to go to my car I realized that it was in a flooded area. I remembered about the Smart Summon and put it to work. It did a really good job better than expected.
Raudel Molina / YouTube.
As the original purpose of the Smart Summon self-driving feature is to call your car to yourself within a parking lot or private property, the Model Y in the above video performed the act perfectly. The car first backed-up slowly and then turned itself to the right, as soon as it faced the truck it stopped and took the best stance for moving forward.
Someone commented that if the car is driving itself, why the windshield wipers are running? The answer is that Tesla cars have three main forward-facing cameras behind the windshield, if Autopilot feels the vision is distorted, the wipers are activated automatically.
Not having an engine and a tailpipe, electric vehicles are much more drivable in flooded areas and are less prone to getting turned-off or risking water flowing into the engine. Elon Musk had described the phenomenon and said Teslas can turn into boats for brief periods of time in the following tweet.
But this functionality should be only be used in shallow waters or only in emergency situations, not like the Tesla Model X owner who drove his SUV through the South Dakota floods last year.
Related: How Tesla Summon is helpful for people with disabilities (video demo)
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