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Tesla Smart Summon patent highlights progress in 3D labeling for full self-driving features
A recently published Tesla patent application details the machine learning methods behind Smart Summon, specifically highlighting the progress being made with 3D labeling in training data.
The application, titled “Autonomous and User Controlled Vehicle Summon to a Target,” utilizes machine learning methods explicitly detailed in two other recent Tesla patent publications in its functionality. This series of three inventions altogether describes an automated way of generating training data which is then used by a machine learning model to accomplish an expansive list of self-driving capabilities in Summon.
“Traditionally, much of the effort to curate a training data set is done manually by reviewing potential training data and properly labeling the features associated with the data,” Tesla’s first application in the series states. “The effort required to create a training set with accurate labels can be significant and is often tedious… Therefore, there exists a need to improve the process for generating training data with accurate labeled features.”
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- A method flow chart from Tesla’s autonomous 3D labeling patent. | Image: Tesla/USPTO
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- A method flow chart from Tesla’s Smart Summon patent application. | Image: Tesla/USPTO
The application goes on to describe how labeled training data is made autonomously in their invention using sensors and the collection of what’s called a “time series,” i.e., a series of images captured over a period of time.
“Using data captured by sensors on a vehicle to capture the environment of the vehicle and vehicle operating parameters, a training data set is created,” it explains. “In some embodiments, a three-dimensional representation of a feature, such as a lane line, is created from the group of time series elements that corresponds to the ground truth… As one example, a series of images for a time period, such as 30 seconds, is used to determine the actual path of a vehicle lane line over the time period the vehicle travels…a single image of the group and the actual path taken can be used as training data to predict the path of the vehicle.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has previously mentioned that better labeling is one of the keys to speeding up the rollout of self-driving functionality and features like Reverse Summon. “We need to finish work on Autopilot core foundation code & 3D labeling, then functionality will happen quickly. Not long now,” Musk wrote on Twitter in March this year. With better labeling (more accurate training data) comes safer and more capable software due to improved predictions from the modeling.
When it comes to Tesla’s Smart Summon, prediction modeling is essential considering there isn’t a driver in the vehicle during its operation. The patent publication covering Summon embodies the first application’s time series functionality and a second application’s implementation of the time series’ training data in its methods, demonstrating one of the numerous potential uses for the machine learning invention. Hints about future developments using Smart Summon are also detailed in the application. Examples include:
- Syncing the Smart Summon with a calendar so the vehicle “automatically navigates to arrive at the location at the ending time, such as the end of a dinner party, a wedding, a restaurant reservation, etc.”
- Implementing a multi-part destination into the Summon instructions such as waypoints at an airport to pick up multiple passengers.
- Monitoring the heartbeat of a Summon user to ensure they are maintaining a connection with the vehicle while operating the feature.
- Customizing the vehicle’s arrival settings such as interior lighting, exterior lighting, hazard lights, welcome music, and climate control preferences.
One of the more unique bits about the Smart Summon patent application is the appearance of Elon Musk as an inventor. While the CEO is known to be intimately involved in nearly all aspects of vehicle design, software features, and business operations, his name is unexpectedly absent from most of the company’s inventions. However, this is apparently on purpose. “I generally try my best not to be on patents,” he revealed on Twitter in reply to a post about the Smart Summon application. Notably, inventorship is a legal definition based on the conception of an invention, i.e., not the person/people who suggested or directed its creation, but the person/people who devised the means to accomplish it.
Prior to the most recent patent publication, Musk contributed inventorship to the door and body styling of the Model X. He also contributed the same to both the design and function of Tesla’s vehicle charge inlets.
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Tesla’s six-seat extended wheelbase Model Y L sold out for January 2026
Estimated delivery dates for new Tesla Model Y L orders now extend all the way into February 2026.
The Tesla Model Y L seems to be in high demand in China, with estimated delivery dates for new orders now extending all the way into February 2026.
This suggests that the Model Y L has been officially sold out from the rest of 2025 to January 2026.
Model Y L estimated delivery dates
The Model Y L’s updated delivery dates mark an extension from the vehicle’s previous 4-8 week estimated wait time. A detailed chart shared by Tesla data tracker @Tslachan on X shows the progressions of the Model Y L’s estimated delivery dates since its launch earlier this year.
Following its launch in September, the vehicle was given an initial October 2025 estimated delivery date. The wait times for the vehicle were continually updated over the years, until the middle of November, when the Model Y L had an estimated delivery date of 4-8 weeks. This remained until now, when Tesla China simply listed February 2026 as the estimated delivery date for new Model Y L orders.
Model Y demand in China
Tesla Model Y demand in China seems to be very healthy, even beyond the Model Y L. New delivery dates show the company has already sold out its allocation of the all-electric crossover for 2025. The Model Y has been the most popular vehicle in the world in both of the last two years, outpacing incredibly popular vehicles like the Toyota RAV4. In China, the EV market is substantially more saturated, with more competitors than in any other market.
Tesla has been particularly kind to the Chinese market, as it has launched trim levels for the Model Y in the country that are not available anywhere else, such as the Model Y L. Demand has been strong for the Model Y in China, with the vehicle ranking among the country’s top 5 New Energy Vehicles. Interestingly enough, vehicles that beat the Model Y in volume like the BYD Seagull are notably more affordable. Compared to vehicles that are comparably priced, the Model Y remains a strong seller in China.
Elon Musk
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
“And when I announced DGX-1, nobody in the world wanted it. I had no purchase orders, not one. Nobody wanted to buy it. Nobody wanted to be part of it, except for Elon.”
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Wednesday and commended Tesla CEO Elon Musk for his early belief in what is now the most valuable company in the world.
Huang and Musk are widely regarded as two of the greatest tech entrepreneurs of the modern era, with the two working in conjunction as NVIDIA’s chips are present in Tesla vehicles, particularly utilized for self-driving technology and data collection.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang regrets not investing more in Elon Musk’s xAI
Both CEOs defied all odds and created companies from virtually nothing. Musk joined Tesla in the early 2000s before the company had even established any plans to build a vehicle. Jensen created NVIDIA in the booth of a Denny’s restaurant, which has been memorialized with a plaque.
On the JRE episode, Rogan asked about Jensen’s relationship with Elon, to which the NVIDIA CEO said that Musk was there when nobody else was:
“I was lucky because I had known Elon Musk, and I helped him build the first computer for Model 3, the Model S, and when he wanted to start working on an autonomous vehicle. I helped him build the computer that went into the Model S AV system, his full self-driving system. We were basically the FSD computer version 1, and so we were already working together.
And when I announced DGX-1, nobody in the world wanted it. I had no purchase orders, not one. Nobody wanted to buy it. Nobody wanted to be part of it, except for Elon.
He goes ‘You know what, I have a company that could really use this.’ I said, Wow, my first customer. And he goes, it’s an AI company, and it’s a nonprofit and and we could really use one of these supercomputers. I boxed one up, I drove it up to San Francisco, and I delivered it to the Elon in 2016.”
The first DGX-1 AI supercomputer was delivered personally to Musk when he was with OpenAI, which provided crucial early compute power for AI research, accelerating breakthroughs in machine learning that underpin modern tools like ChatGPT.
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The long-term alliance between NVIDIA and Tesla has driven over $2 trillion in the company’s market value since 2016.
Elon Musk
GM CEO Mary Barra says she told Biden to give Tesla and Musk EV credit
“He was crediting me, and I said, ‘Actually, I think a lot of that credit goes to Elon and Tesla…You know me, Andrew. I don’t want to take credit for things.”
General Motors CEO Mary Barra said in a new interview on Wednesday that she told President Joe Biden to credit Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, for the widespread electric vehicle transition.
She said she told Biden this after the former President credited her and GM for leading EV efforts in the United States.
During an interview at the New York Times Dealbook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Barra said she told Biden that crediting her was essentially a mistake, and that Musk and Tesla should have been explicitly mentioned (via Business Insider):
“He was crediting me, and I said, ‘Actually, I think a lot of that credit goes to Elon and Tesla…You know me, Andrew. I don’t want to take credit for things.”
GM CEO Mary Barra said to Andrew Sorkin at the New York Times Dealbook Summit that she pulled President Biden aside and said Tesla CEO @elonmusk deserved the credit for EVs:
“He was crediting me, and I said, ‘Actually, I think a lot of that credit goes to Elon and Tesla,'” Barra… pic.twitter.com/OHBTG1QfbJ
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 3, 2025
Back in 2021, President Biden visited GM’s “Factory Zero” plant in Detroit, which was the centerpiece of the company’s massive transition to EVs. The former President went on to discuss the EV industry, and claimed that GM and Barra were the true leaders who caused the change:
“In the auto industry, Detroit is leading the world in electric vehicles. You know how critical it is? Mary, I remember talking to you way back in January about the need for America to lead in electric vehicles. I can remember your dramatic announcement that by 2035, GM would be 100% electric. You changed the whole story, Mary. You did, Mary. You electrified the entire automotive industry. I’m serious. You led, and it matters.”
People were baffled by the President’s decision to highlight GM and Barra, and not Tesla and Musk, who truly started the transition to EVs. GM, Ford, and many other companies only followed in the footsteps of Tesla after it started to take market share from them.
Elon Musk and Tesla try to save legacy automakers from Déjà vu
Musk would eventually go on to talk about Biden’s words later on:
“They have so much power over the White House that they can exclude Tesla from an EV Summit. And, in case the first thing, in case that wasn’t enough, then you have President Biden with Mary Barra at a subsequent event, congratulating Mary for having led the EV revolution.”
In Q4 2021, which was shortly after Biden’s comments, Tesla delivered 300,000 EVs. GM delivered just 26.
Tesla’s six-seat extended wheelbase Model Y L sold out for January 2026
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
