News
Elon Musk says Tesla’s Summon is ‘a fun trick’ that will only get better
Tesla’s Smart Summon feature is one of the most notable Full Self-Driving (FSD) suite characteristics. While driving on public roads and highways with minimal interventions thanks to the newly released FSD Beta V9 is already wildly impressive due to the accuracy and incredibly confident nature it operates in, Summon is one feature that seems to capture the attention of most non-Tesla informed people more often than not. Although CEO Elon Musk said that Summon is “mostly just a fun trick” for now, improvements are coming that will make its nature more useful than a surefire way to impress people nearby.
“Current Summon is sometimes useful,” Musk said on Twitter this weekend, “but mostly just a fun trick.” Indeed, many Tesla owners have utilized Summon to bring their cars to them during torrential downpours or through tricky parking lots, and it’s quite impressive with its accuracy. However, the feature isn’t perfect. Some owners have indicated that there are definitely improvements that need to be unloaded into Summon before it becomes a mainstream and more frequently utilized way to get into a car without having to walk to it.
Current Summon is sometimes useful, but mostly just a fun trick. Once we move summon (plus highway driving) to a single FSD stack, it will be sublime.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2021
In mid-July 2020, one owner said that Summon wasn’t effective on his driveway due to the excessive grade. The steep nature of the owner’s driveway wouldn’t allow Summon to operate properly, and Elon Musk said that the improvements would ultimately come from “upgrading Autopilot to 4D vs. ~2.5D, then it will go up very steep slopes.”
Musk maintains that the improvements to Summon will occur when the feature, along with highway driving functionalities, is switched to a single software stack. Currently, the two features operate on different stacks, likely because they are of a completely unrelated nature. Instead, it seems Tesla will merge multiple FSD functionalities into one stack, and Summon will depend on the Neural Network for improvements.
Watch Tesla Smart Summon react to a runaway “shopping cart” in latest obstacle test
The switch from what Musk calls ~2.5D to 4D is the main focus of the new Dojo Supercomputer. Recently, Tesla’s Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence, Andrej Karpathy, detailed the Supercomputer that Tesla is utilizing to bring in the Dojo era. What is likely the most powerful computer globally, the massive system is utilized to handle large amounts of video, clean data, and diverse scenarios that make the suite well-rounded and more complex with every mile driven. Dojo is set to be released later this year, according to Tesla.
Summon, while definitely a fun feature, would be widely beneficial if it was more accurate and could operate in various scenarios, like on steeper grades. For example, Summon has been utilized by those in a wheelchair to back out their vehicle when parked in tight quarters. Additionally, Summon has been used to bring vehicles to the entrance of a grocery store to pick up a family. The feature has some serious potential moving forward. Still, Tesla realizes the improvements it has talked about are likely the bridge that will connect Summon from a ‘fun trick’ to a beneficial characteristic.
Elon Musk
Brazil Supreme Court orders Elon Musk and X investigation closed
The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following a recommendation from Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.
Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has ordered the closure of an investigation involving Elon Musk and social media platform X. The inquiry had been pending for about two years and examined whether the platform was used to coordinate attacks against members of the judiciary.
The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following a recommendation from Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.
According to a report from Agencia Brasil, the investigation conducted by the Federal Police did not find evidence that X deliberately attempted to attack the judiciary or circumvent court orders.
Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet concluded that the irregularities identified during the probe did not indicate fraudulent intent.
Justice Moraes accepted the prosecutor’s recommendation and ruled that the investigation should be closed. Under the ruling, the case will remain closed unless new evidence emerges.
The inquiry stemmed from concerns that content on X may have enabled online attacks against Supreme Court justices or violated rulings requiring the suspension of certain accounts under investigation.
Justice Moraes had previously taken several enforcement actions related to the platform during the broader dispute involving social media regulation in Brazil.
These included ordering a nationwide block of the platform, freezing Starlink accounts, and imposing fines on X totaling about $5.2 million. Authorities also froze financial assets linked to X and SpaceX through Starlink to collect unpaid penalties and seized roughly $3.3 million from the companies’ accounts.
Moraes also imposed daily fines of up to R$5 million, about $920,000, for alleged evasion of the X ban and established penalties of R$50,000 per day for VPN users who attempted to bypass the restriction.
Brazil remains an important market for X, with roughly 17 million users, making it one of the platform’s larger user bases globally.
The country is also a major market for Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, which has surpassed one million subscribers in Brazil.
Elon Musk
FCC chair criticizes Amazon over opposition to SpaceX satellite plan
Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform X.
U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr criticized Amazon after the company opposed SpaceX’s proposal to launch a large satellite constellation that could function as an orbital data center network.
Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform X.
Amazon recently urged the FCC to reject SpaceX’s application to deploy a constellation of up to 1 million low Earth orbit satellites that could serve as artificial intelligence data centers in space.
The company described the proposal as a “lofty ambition rather than a real plan,” arguing that SpaceX had not provided sufficient details about how the system would operate.
Carr responded by pointing to Amazon’s own satellite deployment progress.
“Amazon should focus on the fact that it will fall roughly 1,000 satellites short of meeting its upcoming deployment milestone, rather than spending their time and resources filing petitions against companies that are putting thousands of satellites in orbit,” Carr wrote on X.
Amazon has declined to comment on the statement.
Amazon has been working to deploy its Project Kuiper satellite network, which is intended to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink service. The company has invested more than $10 billion in the program and has launched more than 200 satellites since April of last year.
Amazon has also asked the FCC for a 24-month extension, until July 2028, to meet a requirement to deploy roughly 1,600 satellites by July 2026, as noted in a CNBC report.
SpaceX’s Starlink network currently has nearly 10,000 satellites in orbit and serves roughly 10 million customers. The FCC has also authorized SpaceX to deploy 7,500 additional satellites as the company continues expanding its global satellite internet network.
Energy
Tesla Energy gains UK license to sell electricity to homes and businesses
The license was granted to Tesla Energy Ventures Ltd. by UK energy regulator Ofgem after a seven-month review process.
Tesla Energy has received a license to supply electricity in the United Kingdom, opening the door for the company to serve homes and businesses in the country.
The license was granted to Tesla Energy Ventures Ltd. by UK energy regulator Ofgem after a seven-month review process.
According to Ofgem, the license took effect at 6 p.m. local time on Wednesday and applies to Great Britain.
The approval allows Tesla’s energy business to sell electricity directly to customers in the region, as noted in a Bloomberg News report.
Tesla has already expanded similar services in the United States. In Texas, the company offers electricity plans that allow Tesla owners to charge their vehicles at a lower cost while also feeding excess electricity back into the grid.
Tesla already has a sizable presence in the UK market. According to price comparison website U-switch, there are more than 250,000 Tesla electric vehicles in the country and thousands of Tesla home energy storage systems.
Ofgem also noted that Tesla Motors Ltd., a separate entity incorporated in England and Wales, received an electricity generation license in June 2020.
The new UK license arrives as Tesla continues expanding its global energy business.
Last year, Tesla Energy retained the top position in the global battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator market for the second consecutive year. According to Wood Mackenzie’s latest rankings, Tesla held about 15% of global market share in 2024.
The company also maintained a dominant position in North America, where it captured roughly 39% market share in the region.
At the same time, competition in the energy storage sector is increasing. Chinese companies such as Sungrow have been expanding their presence globally, particularly in Europe.
Brazil Supreme Court orders Elon Musk and X investigation closed
FCC chair criticizes Amazon over opposition to SpaceX satellite plan
