James Bond in real life: Elon Musk shows off driverless feature, says soon you may call your Tesla from anywhere

Tesla’s Smart Summon feature, recently highlighted by Elon Musk on Twitter, feels like something straight out of a James Bond movie. In a tweet, Musk said that Tesla cars are "rapidly approaching the ability to summon from anywhere at all," sparking excitement about the future of autonomous vehicles. The tech allows drivers to call their car from anywhere in a parking lot, where it will drive itself to their location.

This technology mirrors a scene from the 1997 James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies," where 007, played by Pierce Brosnan, remotely controls his BMW 750iL using a mobile phone. Bond directs the car through obstacles during a thrilling chase—all while sitting in the backseat. While Bond’s version was remote control, Tesla’s Smart Summon takes it a step further by using fully autonomous driving technology.

Following Musk’s tweet, Tesla’s official account clarified that the Smart Summon feature already allows owners to summon their vehicle from any location within a parking lot, as well as send it to a specific spot. To showcase this, Tesla shared a video of the feature in action: a man calls his Tesla, which unparks itself and manoeuvres through the lot autonomously to reach him. Tesla noted that this demonstration was filmed under supervision to ensure safety.

Elon Musk’s vision for expanding Smart Summon beyond parking lots feels like the natural evolution of what was once science fiction. While Bond’s gadgetry was driven by cinematic imagination, Tesla’s advancements are slowly bringing that kind of technology into the real world. Musk’s comments hint at a future where Tesla owners could potentially summon their vehicle from anywhere, not just within parking lots.

Although there’s no concrete timeline for when Tesla’s cars might be fully summonable from any location, the technology draws intriguing parallels with the world of James Bond. The notion of having a car come to you wherever you are, without being behind the wheel, isn’t just movie magic anymore it could soon be a reality.