All Tesla Vehicles to Receive Grok Smart Voice Assistant According to Musk

January 8, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

During another one of his gaming live streams, Elon Musk confirmed that Grok in Teslas is coming soon. According to Elon, you’ll be able to talk to your Tesla and ask for anything.

This seems in line with what we recently predicted - the arrival of a Smart Assistant from xAI, integrated right into your Tesla. We’ve seen the initial indications of this Smart Assistant beginning to form.

Back in early 2023, China received a region-locked Smart Assistant that could handle a few additional basic tasks. Then, Tesla updated the Navigation Voice globally, and most recently, the voice command “Hi” now returns a response. We also had reports that many people have had more success with voice commands recently, suggesting changes to the backend.

We’ve been super excited to see the Smart Assistant, but this is the first confirmation that it will be Grok.

Real-time Information

Grok is xAI’s advanced large language model (LLM) AI, designed to deliver highly capable and dynamic responses. Unlike many other LLMs, Grok can access real-time information and adapt its answers based on the latest news and discussions happening on X’s platform, making it uniquely responsive to breaking news and evolving events.

However, Grok still doesn’t have voice support like other models - including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. It can generate images, documents, tables, and reason very effectively, but it has yet to deliver that information audibly.

Adjust Vehicle Features

Grok’s real-time nature is a capability that could be super useful in a vehicle. When you want to stop on a road trip for food, you can ask for the best local restaurant that is the least busy. Grok will potentially be able to gather all this information, and then enter the navigation entry as your next stop - and then Tesla’s FSD will take you there.

Grok will also be able to process in-vehicle commands intelligently - commands like “Open Charge Port” or “My Hands are Cold” will work through Grok, and it’ll make adjustments to your vehicle as required. Interfacing closely with the vehicle will be a capability that most other smart assistants won’t have - and none will be able to set a navigation destination, choose charging stops, or ask questions that depend on your vehicle’s location, such as send me the to closest 250kW Supercharger.

While voice commands can already perform some of these features, the voice system is expected to be greatly improved with Grok’s integration, letting drivers speak more naturally instead of remembering the syntax that the voice command system understands.

All Teslas will be able to use Grok - Elon Musk

General Knowledge

Tesla owners will finally have a Google Assistant-like smart assistant where you’ll be able to get quick answers to everyday questions, like what’s the weather for tomorrow or what’s Tesla’s stock price.

Supported Vehicles

Grok will continue to analyze and deliver responses on Tesla’s or xAI’s servers rather than inside your vehicle. Processing language and then running it through the AI network isn’t a small task, and given FSD taking priority on-vehicle, Grok will be dependent on an internet connection. The good news here is that since the heavy lifting is all down server-side, Grok will be available for all vehicles, according to Musk. Musk said during his live stream that “all Teslas will be able to use Grok.”

This will certainly mean that vehicles with Intel and Ryzen processors will have the new voice assistant available, while vehicles with MCU 1 are unknown at this time. Since this is mostly a server-side change, we also expect legacy Model S and X vehicles to receive the feature.

Premium Connectivity?

While voice commands are free to all Tesla owners, Tesla has been developing a lot of features lately that require its Premium Connectivity package for about $10/month. Just in the last few months, Tesla has added YouTube Music, Amazon Music, SiriusXM, the ability to stream dashcam footage on your phone, weather radar overlays, and more.

There are several paths Tesla could take. Tesla could bundle Grok into Premium Connectivity, it could require a Premium subscription on X, or it could be a completely free feature.

Release Date

Seeing Grok finally on the horizon is super exciting after we’ve been pining for a Smart Voice Assistant in Teslas for years. Musk said that it’s “coming soon,” during his stream, but we still don’t know exactly when. However, Tesla and xAI have been making several changes over the past few months that hint at this upcoming change. We’d expect this feature to launch in the first half of 2025 and potentially even much sooner.

Tesla's New Smart Tire Sensors Are Capable of Detecting Tire Wear and Road Conditions

March 10, 2025

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Tesla vehicles are packed with sensors, and the Cybertruck is no exception. In fact, it may be Tesla’s most sensor-rich model yet, as evidenced by its Interactive Wiring Diagram.

Now, it looks like the Cybertruck is getting yet another sensor. Tesla has introduced Smart Tire Tread Sensors inside its OEM Cybertruck tires that help provide even more real-time data.

Smart Tire Sensors

These tire tread sensors are from Cerebrum and come as part of the tire itself. This is the same company that supplies the first-party, OEM Bluetooth Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensors (TPMS) - which are mounted to the wheel.

These new sensors are mounted inside a rubber sleeve inside the tire, underneath the acoustic-dampening foam. They’re generally difficult to find, but they are sometimes mistaken for nails or other debris when tires are unmounted and inspected following a leak. If you’re having your tires replaced on your new Cybertruck, you can get the Cerebrum sensor removed from the OEM tire and installed on the new one—the rubber sleeve simply slides out.

More Tire Data

These intelligent tire sensors have a ton of interesting features that will help gather even more data about the vehicle’s tires and current road conditions.

The Cerebrum sensors can measure camber alignment, tire load, tire wear, and even output road surface conditions. That makes them really useful for Tesla - which has been gathering road surface data for years now. This data can be used in conjunction with mapping data to automatically adjust the dynamic suspensions in the refreshed Model 3 and Model Y, as well as the air suspensions in the Cybertruck, Model S, and Model Y.

Tesla is likely leveraging these new sensors to precisely monitor tire wear and assess road surface conditions, allowing FSD to adapt dynamically to reduced traction. According to Tesla, its traction control system continuously analyzes the characteristics of the driving surface and automatically adjusts for optimal grip—these smart sensors could play a crucial role in improving that capability.

These sensors will likely be added to more of Tesla’s OEM tire lineup in the coming months and years. We may also see new software features that show you more data about your tires beyond pressure. Tesla could also issue proactive warnings about uneven wear or if the vehicle needs an alignment.

Tesla's New Model Y Arrives With Adaptive Headlights Enabled in the U.S. - Support for Other Models Coming

March 10, 2025

By Karan Singh

Sawyer Merritt

Tesla has been working on getting regulatory approval for adaptive/matrix headlights in the United States for quite some time. The latest we heard on this front was that the refreshed Model Y would be the first of Tesla’s vehicles to receive support for adaptive headlights in North America.

That statement has finally come true, with several users on X now having received their refreshed Model Ys, and showing off the capabilities of the matrix LED array in all its glory.

Adaptive Headlights

Adaptive Headlights come with two particular features. The first feature is already enabled globally - Teslas equipped with matrix headlights will track curves on the road and “adjust” the beam left and right, as well as up and down, based on the road ahead of you. This is part of the same functionality behind how FSD works and is based on reading the road lines or shape ahead of your vehicle.

The second feature is now enabled on the refreshed Model Y, which is adaptive high beams. Vehicles with matrix headlights will selectively dim or brighten the LEDs that make up the matrix based on other traffic. That means you can effectively drive with your high beams on, and your vehicle will automatically prevent people ahead of you from getting blinded by glare - because the beam pointing in their direction is dimmed to a normal headlight level.

This is a fantastic safety feature, especially if you’re driving in more rural areas or on two-lane highways outside of cities, where high beams are used more often. It keeps both the driver safe by ensuring they have maximum situational awareness of what is ahead of them and other road users safe by making sure they don’t get blinded by a headlight.

@HumorBay

Other Vehicles When?

While Lars didn’t confirm that the refreshed Model Y’s headlights are the same as other Teslas in his interview with Jay Leno, he did confirm other models will be getting the feature. This seems to be more of a vehicle-by-vehicle process, as the functionality is already enabled outside of North America, in markets such as Europe and Asia-Pacific.

This also includes the Cybertruck, whose lower headlight array does indeed feature matrix functionality - so Tesla owners of all models with matrix headlights can look forward to getting Adaptive High Beams in the near future.

High-Res to Low-Res

Tesla introduced their matrix headlights with a high-resolution LED matrix in the past, which allowed precise control over many individual pixels. Over time, Tesla has instead transitioned to a lower-resolution version of the same system. While these low-resolution variants can’t project text during a Light Show, they’re likely cheaper to produce and easier to replace.

Whether you have high-res or low-res matrix headlights, once Tesla enables the feature, you should see a similar experience. You can check our guide to determine if your vehicle has matrix headlights.