Tesla’s Autopark feature has been very limited in its capability, requiring adjacent cars to be activated. This severely limits the number of opportunities you have to use it. I suspect many Tesla owners also try and park away from other vehicles, so while the feature does work, practically it’s pretty useless.
Thankfully in the latest software update, 2021.24 things are changing. It’s been well publicised that Tesla is moving to a vision-only approach. After having now removed radar and using vision only to determine proximity to vehicles ahead (for adaptative cruise and Navigate on Autopilot), Tesla are now leveraging their computer vision AI to significantly change the way Autopark works.
Famous Tesla hacker @GreenTheOnly on Twitter has released a series of videos, showing the new Tesla Autopark which no longer requires adjacent cars to be activated. In the video, we see Green pull up to empty parking bays, tap the Autopark feature on the touchscreen and the car then proceeds to navigate itself between the painted lines of the parking space.
This is a really positive development for Tesla owners and is another practical outcome of Tesla’s work this year to convert more of the operation of the vehicle to use vision-only.
It is worthwhile remembering that Autopark is one of the features you get if you purchase Tesla’s A$10,100 Full Self-Driving Capability, so having the feature actually be useful, will assist owners to justify the purchase, or in the case of the US, the monthly subscription.
