Tesla cars to find parking spots on their own by 2019: Musk

IANS  |  San Francisco 

Announcing major improvements for Tesla's Autopark (Summon) feature, has said the company's electric vehicles would be able to find a spot and even read signs for instruction to avoid tickets by next year.

The "AutoPark" feature comes with "Autopilot" which is its semi-autonomous assistance system. When prompted by a driver, the feature can move a vehicle into a spot.

"By next year, a should be able to drive around a parking lot, find an empty spot, read signs to confirm it's valid and park," Musk tweeted late Wednesday.

The electric carmaker's "Autopilot" feature also uses software and hardware to enable automatic steering, braking, accelerating and lane changing under certain conditions.

"Musk described the technology as a 'slightly smarter version' of the automaker's 'Autopark' feature which currently enables a to parallel park or perpendicular park on its own once the car is next to a clearly marked open spot," reported

The company has faced flak calling it "Autopilot", since drivers are supposed to keep their hands touching the steering wheel.

Last month, the announced a version of "Model 3" with a new 'mid-range' battery pack for $45,000 before incentives.

"Costs $35k after federal and state tax rebates in California, but true cost of ownership is closer to $31k after gas savings," wrote on

"Model 3" has been available for over a year now with the 'Long-Range' battery pack version for 310 miles of range.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Thu, November 01 2018. 12:14 IST