Musk says that Tesla may be able to run a version of Grōk natively
Not a Tesla App
Elon Musk's new venture, xAI, revealed its first-ever product last week. Musk has hinted at possibly incorporating a more compact iteration of this AI tool into Tesla's suite of vehicle technologies.
The day after the announcement, a well-known Tesla advocate, Chuck Cook (via Teslarati), noticed that Musk showed interest in a social media update positing that Grōk, xAI's AI model, might soon operate directly within Tesla's computing environment. Responding to the discussion by Cook, Musk suggested that Tesla could potentially host the world's most robust inference computation provided it can support Grōk's framework.
Musk posted: Provided our vehicle AI computer can run the model, Tesla will probably have the most usable inference compute on Earth.
Even in a robotaxi future, the cars will only be used for ~1/3 of hours/week, leaving 2/3 for distributed inference, like SETI.
Getting to Know Grōk
The precise roles that Grōk will fill in Tesla's ecosystem are still somewhat ambiguous. However, some conjecture points to its potential use as an upgrade to the vehicle's existing voice commands. The social media snippet acknowledged by Musk indicated the SuperPrompt aspect of Grōk could be designed to handle up to 25,000 characters and would initially pull live content from a designated X platform.
Plans are also in motion at xAI to create an application programming interface (API) for Grōk, with expectations set for the model to possess both auditory and visual recognition abilities.
More Grōk Changes Coming
These updates follow Musk's previous statement offering Grōk to X service's Premium Plus subscribers, with packages starting at $16 monthly. This strategic move occurred shortly after Musk introduced xAI, signaling the firm's entrance into the software domain, with Grōk being its initial launch.
On Friday, Musk reassured that the early beta phase would not hinder Premium Plus subscribers from getting their hands on the software. By Saturday, xAI, with Musk at the helm, had officially rolled out Grōk to its Premium Plus clientele, with comprehensive details listed on the company's web portal.
Additionally, the xAI website's career section actively posts job openings across four categories: AI engineering and research, data engineering and web operations, full-stack web development, and systems infrastructure.
In August, xAI used its social platform to reach out to creative talents, educators, and content curators to advance its AI models. This call to action was primarily aimed at individuals with a knack for writing and deep knowledge in specific areas, inviting them to engage with the company directly.
Provided our vehicle AI computer is able to run the model, Tesla will probably have the most amount of true usable inference compute on Earth.
Even in a robotaxi future, the cars will only be used for ~1/3 of hours/week, leaving 2/3 for distributed inference, like SETI.
Tesla maintains two primary software branches: the main feature branch and the FSD branch. In general, the FSD branch lags behind on new features pushed to the main branch but provides a more recent FSD version.
However, now Tesla is updating the main branch to a much more recent version of FSD.
Current FSD Build & Shadow Mode
Nowadays, the main branch always includes an older but stable build of FSD. It’s been on FSD V12.3.6 since July 2024. So, if you subscribe to FSD in North America, this is the FSD version you’ll receive until you get added to the FSD track.
Even if you don’t subscribe to or have purchased FSD, your vehicle has v12.3.6 on it. That includes vehicles in regions where FSD isn’t available for general use, such as Europe and China. In those cases, FSD runs in Shadow Mode, providing training data to Tesla if you’ve agreed to their data privacy policies. So Tesla is always analyzing what the vehicle would do compared to what the driver does. When there are contradictions, these are the clips and data Tesla will want to analyze.
FSD V12.5.4.2 on Main Branch
For the first time in five months, Tesla has now updated the baseline version of FSD in the main branch. The new version included with 2024.44 updates is FSD v12.5.4.2. This Tesla is updating the baseline FSD version to FSD V12.5.4.2
FSD 12.5 includes many features for a much smoother experience compared to FSD 12.3.6. Many users will appreciate that it gets rid of the steering wheel nag and instead relies on the cabin camera to provide real-time driver monitoring. This version also includes support for sunglasses with driver monitoring. It’ll be a big upgrade for anyone coming from FSD 12.3.6.
It's always a good thing when Tesla updates the baseline FSD version—that means that Tesla is confident that this new baseline is considerably safer and will continue to train the fleet against it.
What Update Am I Getting?
If you’re already on FSD V12.5.4.2, you’ll likely remain on that FSD build unless V13.3 manages to make its way to the public as Tesla originally planned, but that’s unlikely to happen before the Thanksgiving holiday. In all likelihood, you’ll be getting update 2024.44, which will give you some additional Tesla features while keeping you on the same FSD version.
For those who are already on 2024.44 - if you subscribe now, you’ll have V12.5.4.2 enabled on your vehicle.
If you have a Cybertruck, then you’ll receive update 2024.39.5 with FSD V12.5.5.3. They’re on a unique build for the moment, and this will likely be the case until Tesla acquires enough training data from the Cybertruck fleet.
The Cybertruck is having an eventful November. Just last week, we shared the news that Tesla isn’t offering their in-house wrap service for the Cybertruck anymore; the Foundation Series is now available in inventory in select US locations, Crossbars have arrived, and faster charging is around the corner. Now there’s even more to discuss about the stainless steel beast.
Projection Puddle Lights
Like the recently launched puddle lights for the Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla has introduced a set of add-on Projector Puddle Lights for the Cybertruck. These Cybertruck-specific ones go for $75 USD, or $105 CAD and are available in both the Canadian and US Tesla stores.
However, these don’t have the Tesla wordmark - instead, they feature the iconic Cybertruck symbol and, in our opinion, look even nicer. Here’s to hoping Tesla also introduces a set with the graffiti-style Cybertruck wordmark.
Powershare in Canada
While the Foundation Series Cybertruck has been getting delivered in Canada since November 7th, there was no news on Powershare being supported due to regulatory constraints. On the 20th, Foundation Series owners in Canada began to receive emails to get their Powershare installs started through Tesla’s official installer - Qmerit.
More to follow on pricing and the process as we receive our Canadian quote from Qmerit soon.
FSD in Canada
The Cybertruck Program Manager, Siddhant Awasthi, confirmed that with Powershare now becoming available, FSD for the Cybertruck in Canada will also become available soon. Canadian trucks shipped with a factory software build that didn’t include FSD, but did include TACC and stoplight/traffic control.
Early this morning Tesla began rolling out a new version of FSD 12.5.5.3 for the Cybertruck, which is update 2024.39.5. Will this be the version that rolls out in Canada?
Update: Yesterday, Tesla started rolling out FSD on the Cybertruck in Canada for the first time. The update being rolled out is update 2024.39.5, which not only features the latest FSD available on the Cybertruck, version 12.5.5.3, but it also includes all the features update 2024.38, which includes the huge Sentry Mode improvements that reduce power consumption by about 40%.
Following Integrated Flight Test 6 for SpaceX’s Starship, Elon Musk confirmed that uncrewed Starships are likely to begin making their way to Mars in about 2 years. You’re probably going to ask what’s going to be in those Starships - that’s what Brett Winston on X asked as well. Elon confirmed that Cybertrucks and Optimus robots will be among some of the first items landing on Mars.
That’s a ton of awesome news for Cybertruck, and there’s absolutely going to be more around the corner, especially as we await the big Tesla Holiday Update. While you wait, why not take a look at our Holiday Update Wishlists?