Tesla has drastically simplified its self-parking tech with a brilliant new “Tap to Park” feature, premise is exactly as straightforward as it sounds. Once enabled, drivers can quite literally tap their in-car display on an open parking spot, and the Tesla will automatically kick into self-parking mode – perfectly maneuvering itself into the indicated space with minimal human involvement.
It’s an interface so intuitive that even technophobes could master it. Forget fiddling with a dozen parallel parking attempt – just point and let the Tesla do its thing with a simple tap. Parking has never been easier.
Vision-Based Autopark Comes Into Focus
Of course, self-parking capabilities are nothing new for Tesla vehicles equipped with the Enhanced Autopilot suite. But this revamped “Tap to Park” version finally ditches reliance on ultrasonic sensors in favor of a smarter, vision-based approach leveraging the same neural nets as Tesla’s class-leading Full Self-Driving beta.
According to Elon Musk himself, the underlying tech represents “major improvements” over the previous Autopark system. Specifically, he credits Tesla’s custom Dojo AI training supercomputer for enabling much more robust computer vision models to intelligently analyze and navigate into open parking spots.
According to Tesla’s own Ashok Elluswamy, who heads up Autopilot and AI development, Tesla much-hyped Actually Smart Summon upgrade is headed to FSD over “the next few releases” when it will merge with the core self-driving models.
It’s a similar approach to Tesla’s recently released “High-Fidelity Park Assist” that can impressively render 3D visualizations of a vehicle’s surroundings using just camera data. Except here, instead of pretty graphics, the neural nets are put to work automating the entire parking process.
Just Tap and Go
While Tesla hasn’t detailed the full capabilities of Tap to Park just yet, the company seems to be working towards a seamless experience where owners could theoretically exit their vehicle after tapping a spot, and let the Tesla automatically park itself without a human in the driver’s seat.
Think of it like Smart Summon in reverse – a robust vehicle self-reliance feature that saves owners the hassle of parking while feeling downright futuristic. All with the push of a single tap.
For everyday consumers, Tap to Park represents the democratization of a technology once considered premium sci-fi wonderment. With Tesla making self-parking this easy and accessible, we may finally see self-driving convenience go truly mainstream.