When Your Users Rename Your AI: The "Dumb Summon" Effect

Tesla didn't set out to build a joke. But their users turned it into one anyway.

It started with Summon, a feature that let your Tesla roll forward and backward in a straight line. Then came Smart Summon, promising to navigate complex parking lots. What users got instead was hesitant turns, awkward stops, and plenty of parking-lot confusion.

The verdict? "Dumb Summon." A mocking nickname the community coined. And now, Tesla has quietly embraced it.

In Tesla's latest documentation, Dumb Summon is the official name for the basic version. And the upgraded version? It's now called Actually Smart Summon (ASS).

Yes, really. Source: Tesla Owner's Manual

It's not just a naming update. It's a case study in expectation management and how quickly users will rewrite your product story when you overpromise.

Here's the real lesson: in AI, naming is expectation management.

• •Call it smart, and people expect magic
• •Call it autonomous, and they expect perfection
• •Disappoint them, and they'll rename it for you
• •And sometimes, you'll have to adopt their name

Compare that to GitHub Copilot. The name sets the right tone from day one.

You're still the pilot. The AI just helps you navigate. No confusion. No overpromise. No need for embarrassing rebrands.

If you're building AI products, name features for what they do, not what you hope they'll become.

Because once trust breaks, you might end up officially adopting the joke your users made about you.