Tesla has finally released Actually Smart Summon for Europe and the Middle East, albeit with several major restrictions. However, it's definitely a first step towards unlocking autonomy in Europe. Actually Smart Summon is going out as part of update 2024.44.3, and it’s available to vehicles with hardware 3 and 4.
Europe’s autonomy laws are governed under UNECE regulation R79, which regulates autonomous features and is extremely restrictive in how autonomy can be used and applied. For example, the previous revision (Rev 4) of R79 required drivers to approve, with physical action, every decision made by an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) feature.
Limited Actually Smart Summon
Under Rev 5 of UNECE R79, Actually Smart Summon can actually function, but only to a limited degree. Owners have to be within 6 meters (19.5 feet) of the vehicle at all times, making it barely more usable than Dumb Summon (can we coin the term Dummon?).
In addition, you can only travel a total distance (under the regulation) of 100 meters (328 feet) - which means you’d have to run beside the vehicle or be inside it, rendering it mostly useless. However, Tesla has, for some reason, limited the total summon distance to 15-20m (50 to 65 feet) of travel. These limits are in sharp contrast to the distance limits of A.S.S. in North America.
Update 2024.44.3
Percent of Fleet
Installs Today
Getting UNECE R79 Updated
Tesla has been hard at work getting R79 repealed or updated to allow for further autonomy after running demos for senior politicians earlier in the year. Back in March, we reported that updating DCAS regulations in Europe would help get FSD approved - but that covered driver assistance, not autonomy. In fact, Tesla was testing FSD with validation vehicles as far back as February of this year, hinting that Supervised FSD may be getting close.
Tesla FSD Validation Vehicle seen in Munich, Germany 👀
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) February 29, 2024
FSD Beta in Europe soon?! 🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/FsNEjaFxzh
While FSD has a clear path forward in Europe, semi-autonomous features like Actually Smart Summon and Banish don’t just yet. The updated DCAS regulations do not cover semi-autonomy or autonomy and require clear interfaces, guidelines, and controls for drivers to be informed and engaged at all times.
It’ll take another big swing for Tesla to get autonomy regulations changed to allow for more semi-supervised autonomy like Actually Smart Summon - much less fully autonomous products like the Robotaxi Network, Cybercab, and Robovan.
