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What is the Tesla Autopark Feature?
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The Autopark feature introduced by Tesla Motors is a game-changer that everyone should know about. The basics of this technology are that you can pull into or out of your garage, driveways, parking spots, and other tight areas with the car in control without touching the steering wheel. This means no more scraping the front of the car on those close garage door openings, no more worrying about those tight parking spots or parallel parking.
How Does the Tesla Autopark Feature Work?
The Tesla Autopark feature works by first lining up the vehicle to an open spot with a single click of a button, or by giving it voice commands to park.
The Tesla Autopark feature is enabled through its sensors and cameras situated on the front, side, and back of the vehicle. With the sensors, the car is able to detect objects around the vehicle. The cameras, on the other hand, are used for identifying street signs and curbs so that Autopark can park accordingly.
Once you set up Autopark, it will utilize its exterior camera angles to map out its motions. Utilizing its spatial awareness, the vehicle will guide itself into a tight spot without damaging other vehicles, objects, or the car itself. By using this new technology, people have been able to cut their commute times in half over those who use regular parallel parking techniques. In leveraging this feature, drivers don't have to deal with the hassle of finding a spot in crowded areas, like downtown Palo Alto, for example, where parking is already scarce.
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How to Use Tesla Autopark
Follow these steps to use Tesla Autopark:
- While driving slowly, keep an eye on the touchscreen to see when Autopark has recognized a parking spot. When Autopark finds a possible parking location, the touchscreen shows a parking symbol. When driving at less than 15mph (24 km/hr), Autopark detects parallel parking spots. For perpendicular parking spots, the car has to be moving at less than 10mph (16 km/hr).
- Examine the assigned parking space to see if it’s adequate and safe. Position the Tesla a car's length away from the parking spot as if you were preparing to back into a spot or parallel park.
- Let go of the steering wheel, shift the car into reverse, and then hit Start Autopark on the touchscreen.
- A "complete" message will appear once the parking is finished.
How to Cancel the Autopark Feature
If you manually turn the steering wheel, change gears, or touch Cancel on the touchscreen while Autopark is in operation, it will cancel the parking sequence. Tesla's Autopark feature also stops when:
- The parking process takes more than seven moves.
- If a door is opened or detects that the driver has exited.
- The driver presses either on the acceleration or brake pedal.
- In the event of Automatic Emergency Braking.
Autopark Warnings
Autopark is a handy function, but it’s quite limited at the moment. Tesla will continue to improve the feature with future updates as its algorithms mature. The majority of drivers will find that the Tesla can park itself in some instances but drivers must always be ready to park their car when the self-parking function fails to work.
For Autopark to work best, cameras and sensors need to be kept clean and free of dirt or debris because any obstruction in their line of sight to the surroundings might cause Autopark to not activate properly. While this is a great parking feature for your car, it does not replace human responsibility, so while you let your Tesla do all the work, you still need to watch out for any obstructions that might get in the way of it squeezing into that tight spot.
Never use Autopark if anything is attached to or hanging from the car, like bicycles or trailers. Autopark might not be able to detect the hitch attached to your car well enough, which might cause damage to your car or the hitch.
If Autopark fails to activate and you still think it should have worked, check your surroundings. There needs to be enough room around the car for the sensors to detect objects. Similarly, there also needs to be a space wide enough for the car to fit into. If the car is too close or facing an object such as a wall or another vehicle, Autopark will not activate.
Please take a look at the following video for a better idea on what's Autopark and how it works here.
Tesla’s Camera-Only Autopark Feature
The newer Tesla Autopark feature uses a camera instead of ultrasonic sensors to park itself. Tesla’s models still contain ultrasonic sensors; however, the technology of the vision-only system (Tesla Vision) outperforms the sensors. The camera better detects lines for more accurate parking. Tesla Vision is the system that operates Autopilot and FSD on the Model 3 and Y as of May 2021. The feature is expected to roll out as a part of the Full-Self Driving (FSD) Beta for other models.
Pros and Cons of the Tesla Autopark Feature
The Tesla Autopark feature is impressive, to say the least. As mentioned, it enables drivers to park in tight spots with ease. Those who have used this feature confirm that they can sit back and relax inside the car while it self-parks without any hiccups whatsoever. It seems like a dream come true for impatient drivers who hate parallel parking or parking in crowded areas. However, there are some issues too.
One of the issues is the driver has no control of where the car is going. If the driver is not happy with its positioning, they will have to sit tight and then press the brakes or the accelerator to put it back into place.
Another downside is that Autopark may lead drivers to be overly dependent on Teslas, which can take control of some (but not all) aspects of parking. This could make people less comfortable parking when switching to driving an internal combustion engine vehicle, which uses different controls for braking and acceleration.
Final Notes
The Tesla Autopark feature is an advanced automatic parking system that can take care of tough, The Tesla Autopark feature is an advanced automatic parking system that can take care of tough, crowded parking situations. It enables the driver to park in tight spots with ease. The driver does not have to worry about hitting other vehicles or objects when using this feature. All the driver needs to do is get behind the wheel and press a button. The car will do the rest automatically.
Similarly, additional third-party applications can help enhance the existing features of your Tesla. Optiwatt, for example, is a free application that allows you to track, monitor, and minimize the cost of your energy consumption via your smartphone.
While the Autopark feature works relatively well, it is not entirely flawless. There have been some cases where the driver has had to intervene and park the car manually. However, it’s only expected to improve with the roll-out of Tesla Vision and software updates. The company has a good habit of updating its vehicles’ software regularly to enhance performance and convenience.
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