Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long been a fan of memes, trolling, and humorous acronyms for otherwise unremarkable product names. In fact, his affection for juvenile humor is what brought us Tesla’s current product lineup of the Model S, Model 3, Model X and Model Y (or ‘S3XY’).
But it did not end there of course. In between major product launches, Elon was promoting Tesla-branded flamethrowers, actual short shorts to troll TSLA shorts, and finding ever more creative ways to sneak the numbers 69 and 420 into everyday conversations.
Since the purchase of Twitter and its transformation into X, he has leaned into this side of his personality. But he has moved away from associating this with the Tesla brand itself. Instead, following Elon on X has meant being bombarded by politically charged memes rather than promotion of Tesla or its products.
So it’s good to at least see Elon’s low-brow humor directed at Tesla again. After recently discussing upcoming Tesla Vision updates with fans, Elon again shared that Autopark and Smart Summon would be returning soon to Tesla vehicles. These features have been largely removed from the current lineup ever since the automaker dropped ultrasonic sensors from all products about two years ago.
Even when these features were included in Tesla vehicles, the Smart Summon and Autopark features never really lived up to expectations and the claims from Musk. The automaker has been assuring buyers of their return since then, but not much has come of it so we will remain skeptical for now.
Although we have started seeing early demonstrations and reviews of this new Tesla Vision-based Autopark. Initial impressions have been that the product is a bit slow, but overall functions well for parallel parking.
Musk hinted about a month ago that Autopark might be renamed to “Banish” since the idea is that it would involve exiting your car and sending your Model Y away to find a parking spot on its own. It also seems like Elon is trying very hard to coin the phrase “Actual Smart Summon” in place of Smart Summon as it has previously been known.
Knowing his personality, it is no coincidence that this long-promised feature would be shortened to ASS. Elon is well aware of what it would mean to have millions of ASS-equipped S3XY models on the road.
Sadly this isn’t the first time Elon has provided a timeframe for an “(actual smart) Summon” of course. In fact, nearly one year ago today, Musk claimed “Actually Smart Summon” was coming in “a month or two”.
Of course, whenever this feature does eventually launch, calling it “Actual” Smart Summon would be an admission that the previous version wasn’t actually all that smart.
So at this point, is this simply a running joke on Elon’s part? Or will the company be referring to the feature in this way in the future? Let us know what you think below.