Tesla has adjusted one portion of its “Actually Smart Summon” (ASS) feature to address a common complaint from owners: battery drain.
Teslas have a lot of really awesome features that make them one of the most technologically advanced vehicle models on the market. Things like Sentry Mode, Cabin Overheat Protection, and ASS’s “Summon Standby” features all keep the car on its toes for anything that comes its way.
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However, the activation of these features contributes to battery drain while the vehicle sits parked. The amount varies, but I personally have lost up to five percent with some of these features active. That’s a lot if you do not utilize home charging.
Tesla is doing what it can to combat the battery drain with each of these features. It has done so with Sentry Mode, as an update last year helped combat battery percentage loss due to the activation of the security feature.
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It also recently introduced “Low Power Mode,” which will automatically deactivate some features if your battery falls below 20 percent. This is a great way to combat battery loss if your car is parked somewhere long-term, like an airport, for example.
There is also another feature that is attached to ASS called “Summon Standby.” This keeps the vehicle awake in case the owner needs quick connectivity to the vehicle, allowing them to summon the car to their location swiftly.
But there’s a drawback: keeping this feature activated will drain the battery. By default, the feature is activated when you take your car home, so you have to turn it off manually by accessing the settings menu inside the vehicle.
Turning this off would save you between 2% and 3% overnight, in my experience. With ASS still being a feature that needs some work, I chose to turn Summon Standby off. ASS will still work with the standby mode deactivated; it will just take a few more seconds for your phone to connect to the vehicle.
Tesla is adjusting Summon Standby’s settings slightly to combat the loss of battery life some owners might see with the feature active.
According to Not a Tesla App, Tesla has rolled out two conditions for which Summon Standby will be deactivated automatically:
Overnight Deactivation
Summon Standby will automatically be deactivated from midnight to 6 a.m. every night, which appears to be a data-driven decision made by Tesla based on the feature’s least-used hours.
This automatic pause cannot be turned off, at least for the time being.
Extended Parking Deactivation
If your Tesla is parked for over 24 hours, Summon Standby will also be deactivated automatically.
This is a great way to save battery life for those who are on vacation or are at home for several days in a row. This works similarly to the Low-Power Mode we talked about earlier in this article.