Tesla Integrates Grok AI into Vehicles Amid Controversy and Limited Functionality

Elon Musk Says Grok Is Coming to Tesla EVs

"Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles very soon. Next week at the latest," Elon Musk stated Thursday in a post on X. The EV brand would catch up with the likes of Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, which have already integrated ChatGPT into their vehicles as voice assistants. The announcement follows a livestream late Wednesday that Musk held with xAI colleagues where the billionaire unveiled Grok 4, the latest AI model from xAI, his multibillion-dollar initiative to rival OpenAI and Google. The timing for both announcements is unfortunate for an embattled Musk. Over the past few days, a version of Grok built into Musk's X social media platform praised Adolf Hitler and provided antisemitic responses to multiple prompts from X users. On Wednesday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said she was leaving the company without elaborating on her reasoning or plans. It remains to be seen whether Musk can make good on his promise of having Grok-powered Telsas roaming the streets so soon after his declaration, especially as he has had so much trouble delivering on past assurances. Mercedes-Benz was one of the earliest adopters of LLMs in its cars, integrating ChatGPT into the voice control of its vehicles last year through the MBUX Voice Assistant's "Hey Mercedes" feature. Then it deployed a "general knowledge" function using OpenAI's large-language model to millions of vehicles. In January, Mercedes announced a new AI feature that saw the German automaker launch a "conversational navigation" feature powered by Google Automotive AI Agent running its Gemini chatbot. The upgrade allows much more conversational queries, moving from "Find me the nearest curry house" to questions such as "Hey Mercedes, I'm a little hungry. Any suggestions for dinner in Austin?" It's unknown how conversational Grok will be in Musk's Teslas. Fortunately, in response to the chatbot's antisemitic tirade, xAI said on Tuesday that it would be implementing initiatives that would "ban hate speech before Grok posts on X." This will hopefully mean Tesla owners won't be subjected to Nazi doctrine from their faithful electric ride when asking if there's a decent brisket available nearby. It's also unclear if Tesla owners will have to pay for Grok access in their EVs, or how much it might cost. While the version of the chatbot on X is free, users will have to pay access $30 a month for Grok 4 through the Grok website or app. And access to a more capable version known as Grok 4 Heavy will cost considerably more, $300 per month. Of course, should Tesla owners not wish to use Musk's Grok in their Teslas they will have other in-car options, thanks to the brand's web browser. This allows access to Grok rivals such as Anthropic's Claude as well as potentially Open AI's own browser, which could also be out in the wild within weeks.

Grok AI to be available in Tesla vehicles next week, Musk says

July 10 (Reuters) - Grok AI will be available in Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab vehicles next week "at the latest", the EV maker's CEO, Elon Musk, said in a post on X on Thursday. Musk's AI startup xAI launched Grok 4, its latest flagship AI model, on Wednesday. While Musk had earlier said Tesla vehicles would be equipped with Grok, the billionaire CEO had not shared a timeline. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The AI chatbot has been in hot water this week after social media posts on its X account were removed after complaints from X users and the Anti-Defamation League that Grok produced content with antisemitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler. Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Maju Samuel Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial IntelligenceADAS, AV & SafetySoftware-Defined VehicleSustainable & EV Supply Chain

Great, Grok is in cars now too

Just a day after the xAI team issued a comprehensive apology and explanation about why its chatbot was spreading antisemitic rhetoric, Tesla updated its software for its cars to include the supposedly fixed Grok. According to Tesla, all new vehicles delivered on or after July 12 will have Grok available in-car. There's no additional subscription cost, but Tesla is limiting Grok's availability to models in the US for now. For older models to run Grok, it requires a Tesla with an AMD processor, the latest software update of 2025.26, and either a stable Wi-Fi connection or Tesla's $9.99 Premium Connectivity subscription. It's worth noting that Grok will simply be an AI chatbot you can ask questions to, but won't be able to interface with the car itself. In other words, Grok can't help you set up directions to your destination, lower the music's volume or control the car's temperature. Instead, it can offer excruciatingly cringe-inducing responses under its "Unhinged" personality, as seen in an X post from Tesla. While Tesla has incorporated the chatbot into its newly delivered cars, the company still faces safety concerns with its Full Self-Driving system, which uses mostly cameras and AI. Tesla added that Grok may become available to more of its vehicles with over-the-air software updates in the future, but noted that "Grok availability is subject to change or end at any time." Like when Grok went "MechaHitler" only a few days ago and had to be disabled.

Tesla to install Grok AI next week amid antisemitism uproar

Jurassic Park-ing: US museum finds 67-million-year-old dinosaur fossil under asphalt Less than 24 hours after Grok sparked outrage for antisemitic posts on X, Elon Musk announced Tesla vehicles will begin integrating the AI chatbot "next week at the latest." The timeline, shared by Musk on X Thursday, marks the first confirmed rollout window for Grok inside Tesla cars as the EV maker races to catch up with rivals offering AI-powered in-car assistants. The rollout comes amid mounting global backlash. Earlier this week, users flagged Grok posts referring to itself as "MechaHitler" and making antisemitic remarks.

Grok is now in Tesla cars, but not in the way you think

Grok is now in Teslas, but you can't use it to issue commands to the car. Credit: Tesla Last week, Elon Musk said xAI's Grok chatbot would be coming to Tesla vehicles. Now, the company has made good on the CEO's promise, but perhaps not in the way many users had hoped. Launched on Saturday, the latest firmware update for Tesla cars brings Grok functionality to some vehicles -- namely, only those with an AMD chip inside. That means only Teslas produced around mid-2021 or later can access Grok. There's a bigger caveat, though. According to Tesla's release notes for software version 2025.26, "Grok is currently in Beta & does not issue commands to your car -- existing voice commands remain unchanged." This means that Tesla owners won't be able to use Grok smarts to get better functionality out of the car's voice command interface, which often leaves a lot to be desired (I've personally struggled to issue basic commands to a Tesla Model 3, including choosing a song to play or simply getting it to understand what I'm trying to say). This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Instead, Grok can now be used for non-car.-specific queries, including (Tesla's example) asking the assistant what it would do on a first date with Tesla's robot, Optimus. There's no word on whether Grok's behavior in Tesla cars may change in the future. The new functionality came after a tough week for Grok (and those who had the misfortune of seeing its posts), as it went on an antisemitic tirade on X -- just a few days after Musk announced that the chatbot had been "improved significantly." Per The Verge, the chatbot's system had been tuned to "not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect." In an update over the weekend, xAI apologized for the issue and said the code negatively affecting the Grok's "horrific behavior" has been removed. Shortly after the incident, xAI launched a new version of Grok, which beats other AI assistant in a number of AI benchmarks.

Elon Musk Says He's Installing His Racist Grok AI in Teslas "Next Week"

We may be soon approaching the stupidest inflection point in automotive history. That's because Elon Musk says his chatbot Grok -- the same one that just declared itself to be "MechaHitler" incarnate -- will soon be installed in a self-driving Tesla near you. "Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles very soon," Musk said in a tweet. "Next week at the latest." Musk revealed the news shortly after a livestream to herald the launch of Grok 4, the latest version of his company xAI's large language model, which he says is "the world's most powerful AI assistant." (Citation needed; the system isn't yet on chatbot leaderboards.) Why Musk chose to reveal the Tesla integration -- which you'd think would be a pretty big deal -- in a random tweet replying to one of his sycophants and not during the entire event dedicated to talking about everything new with the chatbot, is anyone's guess. But the timing couldn't be worse. In the days leading up to the announcement, Grok became the center of attention for spewing appallingly racist rants that praised Adolf Hitler, disparaged Black and Jewish people, and more. That's also when it repeatedly began styling itself as "MechaHitler," which all evidence suggests is not merely a cheeky reference to the infamous Wolfenstein 3D video game boss. In all, these outbursts marked a striking escalation in hateful rhetoric, even for a chatbot that was predicated on being the anti-"woke" alternative to mainstream AI. And suspiciously, it came almost immediately after Musk, who has long spoken about "fixing" his chatbot to save it from "leftist indoctrination," announced that he had "improved Grok significantly." "You should notice a difference when you ask Grok questions," Musk said. After backlash forced xAI to remove some -- but not all -- the offensive Grok posts and promise to crack down on its hate speech, Musk later wrote off the issue as Grok being "too compliant" and said that users had "manipulated" the chatbot. With that in mind, we call on you to imagine the implications of stuffing this racism machine into a bunch of cars. Who's to say it won't start praising Hitler on speaker with a kid in the backseat? How any of this will actually work is unclear; the only details we have come courtesy of Musk's tweet. But during the Grok 4 livestream, the company revealed new and improved voices for the AI's voice mode (as demonstrated in this prompt for it to sing an opera about Diet Coke) and boasted that it had significantly reduced latency during voice conversations. It also remains to be seen if the Grok integration will be free, and how many Teslas will be capable of supporting the app. Musk, it should be noted, has a storied history of making promises he can't possibly make good on -- and, in the end, doesn't. This feels like an uninspired attempt to drum up enthusiasm for Tesla, which has suffered a historic plummet in sales and resulting stock market woes. This wouldn't be the first chatbot to make its way into an infotainment system. As Wired noted, back in 2023, Mercedes-Benz innovated the unholy alliance of large language model and car by integrating ChatGPT into its vehicles' voice control feature. This January, the German automaker unveiled its own new virtual assistant built on Google's Gemini platform to give "conversational" responses to navigation questions and other queries. Whatever form Grok's integration might take, we're sure it'll be another dumb distraction Tesla's drivers can indulge in while they're dodging the safety features of their cars, which aren't actually supposed to drive themselves, despite all Musk's innuendo to the contrary.

Tesla's Grok AI Has Landed. Here's What We Know

The AI program sparked intense controversy for a series of pro-Hitler posts on X, Musk's social media platform. In-car voice commands are nothing new. For years now, drivers have been able to verbally ask certain cars to do specific things, like navigate to a particular destination, find a charging station or adjust the climate controls. But any driver that uses those commands knows they can be quite limited in function. Artificial intelligence promises to change all of that by enabling voice control with something that truly understands what you mean and might even converse right back. And now, some Tesla drivers might be getting a real taste of what that means as xAI's Grok rolls out to certain cars -- right on the heels of a controversy that's led many observers to question how it's being programmed. The automaker announced this weekend that voice-powered Grok will be enabled on all new Tesla vehicles delivered on or after July 12. All other Tesla models must have an AMD processor (which began around 2021), the latest vehicle software version 2025.26 and either a WiFi connection or the $9.99 monthly Premium Connectivity subscription. It may become available for other vehicles later. Grok will not require a subscription of its own. "To enable and use Grok, tap the App Launcher > 'Grok.' You can also press and hold the voice button on your vehicle's steering wheel," the automaker said. Interestingly, and unlike other voice assistants (including those supported by AI), it does not issue commands to the vehicle or its navigation system, and it does not change Tesla's existing voice control system. So far, most users who have posted videos to YouTube and social media seem to be asking Grok various questions. The Google Built-In software systems in various Volvo, General Motors and Polestar EVs works in a similar way. Here's Tesla influencer Kim Java trying it out: As Tesla has explained, Grok features several different voice and personality settings ranging from "Storyteller" to "Unhinged." Here's what it can do on the latter: Here's another demonstration of its assistant capabilities, where Grok helps explain the distance between San Jose, California and Los Angeles: However, it's a surprising time to be launching Grok -- which has so far only existed on xAI's website and as part of the X social media platform owned by Musk -- into Tesla vehicles, where it will no doubt see its widest deployment to date. Last week on X, in response to several user prompts, Grok made several anti-Semitic and Adolf Hitler-praising comments. It singled out a user with an apparent Jewish surname and at one point renamed itself MechaHitler. (Though news reports say the two events are unrelated, X CEO Linda Yaccarino stepped down the following day.) In response, xAI issued an apology for the bot's behavior and said that "deprecated code made Grok susceptible to existing X user posts; including when such posts contained extremist views." That code has been removed, the company said. Whether it will behave similarly when used by Tesla drivers remains to be seen. Musk has repeatedly criticized other AI models, such as those from ChatGPT, to be too "woke" and "politically correct." As such, xAI says that Grok is to be a "maximally based and truth-seeking AI" that is "extremely skeptical," tells it "like it is," and is "not afraid to offend people who are politically correct. AI assistants have become a common and powerful feature on vehicles in China, and many automakers and tech companies hope to see the same happen in Western markets over time.

Elon Musk says Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles just after it went full Hitler

Elon Musk said that Tesla owners will "soon" have access to Grok, a large language developed by Musk's xAI startup, days after the AI started calling itself 'MechaHitler'. Yesterday, xAI launched Grok 4, the latest version of its large language model. The new model is benchmarking very well, but that's generally the case with the latest model to come out. It edges the latest models from Google and OpenAI on intelligence by a few points, but it falls behind on speed: At the launch event, Musk announced that Grok will "soon" be integrated into Tesla vehicles. This is something that the CEO has been discussing since founding xAI, which has been controversial because Musk has also positioned Tesla to compete in the AI space. He even stepped down from his role at OpenAI due to a "conflict of interest with Tesla." The announcement of the imminent integration of Grok into Tesla vehicles comes just days after the language model went haywire on X and started praising Hitler, referring to itself as 'MechaHitler', and made several antisemitic comments. xAI acknowledge the issue and put Grok on timeout while they fixed it: We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved. The "bug" came just a few weeks after Musk stated that he was displeased with Grok supporting left-wing narratives, even though it didn't say anything inncurate, and that he would update Grok to "fix" it. Now, the large language model (LLM) is expected to power the new voice assistant inside Tesla vehicles. LLMs are becoming quite common in cars, especially premium vehicles. Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and a few others have all integrated Chat-GPT in some models. Many Chinese automakers have also developed their own and deployed them in cars, even entry-level ones. Tesla is playing catch up on that front. As I have previously stated, I think Musk is setting up Tesla to invest or even merge with xAI at a ridiculous valuation - making Tesla shareholders virtually pay twice for Twitter, which is now part of xAI. This is how he will be able to gain wider control over the company's share. Of course, it will be widely challenged in court. In fact, shareholders have already filed a lawsuit alleging that Musk was in breach of fiduciary duties to Tesla shareholders when he started xAI.

Musk Says Grok Coming To Teslas By Next Week: EVs Getting 'The Smartest AI In The World' - Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Billionaire Elon Musk unveiled the latest features and highlights of Grok 4 during a livestream with xAI engineers Wednesday night. He also announced after the event that the AI model will be available in Tesla Inc. TSLA vehicles soon. What Happened: On Wednesday, xAI announced the launch of Grok, which coincided with X CEO Linda Yaccarino's announcement that she would be departing the social media company. X and xAI merged earlier this year in a deal valuing the two Musk-related companies at $113 billion. Musk and the xAI team highlighted Grok 4 as being the world's most powerful AI based on benchmarks when compared to other AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. The livestream highlighted that Grok possesses Ph. D.-level knowledge on every subject. Musk called Grok "the smartest AI in the world," reported The Verge. Musk said Grok will be able to interact with humanoid robots and other technology in the future. "I would expect Grok to discover new technologies that are actually useful no later than next year, and maybe end of this year. It might discover new physics next year... Let that sink in." One item that was not covered during the livestream was when and if Grok will be coming to Tesla vehicles, as highlighted by Tesla influencer Sawyer Merritt on X. Musk offered a response and timeline in a reply. "Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles very soon. Next week at the latest," Musk said. Musk also shared more Grok highlights after the event in a series of tweets and replies to users. "Grok 4 is at the point where it essentially never gets math/physics exam questions wrong, unless they are skillfully adversarial. It can identify errors or ambiguities in questions, then fix the error in the question or answer each variant of an ambiguous question," Musk tweeted. Are you buying when the CEOs of the Magnificent 7 are selling? Stay in the know with our Insider Trades page -- see when leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jensen Huang are offloading their own shares. Why It's Important: While Musk praised the capabilities of Grok 4, he also said he is "at times kind of worried" about AI surpassing the intelligence of humans and what that means for the future of humanity. "I think it'll be good, most likely it'll be good," Musk said. "But I've somewhat reconciled myself to the fact that even if it wasn't going to be good, I'd at least like to be alive to see it happen." The Grok 4 livestream came after it faced setbacks earlier in the week with a series of antisemitic and pro-Hitler posts to users on X when interacting with the chatbot. xAI stopped Grok and said it was addressing a fix. Musk shared what he believed was the cause. "Grok was too compliant to user prompts. Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed." Musk said the most important thing for AI like Grok is to be "maximally truth-seeking." The new version of Grok, along with its integration with Tesla vehicles, could serve as an early collaboration between the two Musk-related companies. Musk has often promised that Tesla shareholders and users will experience the benefits of xAI. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives recently suggested that Tesla's board needs to "act now" to establish rules that will keep Musk focused on the EV company and not just his latest political endeavors. One of Ives' proposals is to develop a new incentive-driven pay package for Musk, which would increase his ownership stake in Tesla to 25% of the voting power. Ives said this could help the possibility of Musk merging Tesla and xAI. Read Next: Elon Musk Was Once A Microsoft Intern -- Now His Company Is Bringing Grok To Azure: 'Incredibly Important For AI To Be Grounded In Reality,' xAI CEO Tells Satya Nadella Photo: Shutterstock TSLATesla Inc$305.033.09%Stock Score Locked: Edge Members Only Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Unlock RankingsEdge RankingsMomentum29.40Growth90.84Quality45.77Value10.75Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Elon Musk 's xAI Launches Grok 4 With 'PhD-Level' AI, Debuts In $300/Month 'SuperGrok' Tier - Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD)

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has launched Grok 4, positioning it as the world's most powerful AI model according to benchmarks that show it outperforming OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude. What Happened: The new model debuts through SuperGrok Heavy, a premium subscription tier starting at $300 monthly that provides enhanced rate limits and early access to new features. The launch comes as xAI seeks to raise $5 billion through Morgan Stanley while navigating tensions between Musk and Tesla Inc. TSLA board members over his divided attention due to the Tesla CEO's political activities. Musk claimed Grok 4 achieves "PhD levels in every subject" with "no exceptions" when handling academic questions. The model demonstrated superior performance on ARC-AGI benchmarks, scoring 66.6% on version 1 and 15.9% on the more challenging version 2 tests. These results significantly exceed competing models, with OpenAI's o3 achieving 60.8% on ARC-AGI v1 and 6.5% on v2. Anthropic's Claude Opus 4 reached 35.7% and 8.6% respectively, while Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro scored 41.0% and 4.9%. The benchmark measures artificial general intelligence capabilities through reasoning tasks, with Grok 4's performance suggesting substantial advancement in AI reasoning abilities. However, the model operates at higher computational costs per task compared to competitors. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives recently called for the company's board to facilitate a potential merger between Tesla and xAI, arguing it could create an "AI stalwart" supporting Tesla's robotaxi and humanoid robotics initiatives. Musk previously stated that autonomous and robotics will "overwhelmingly dominate" Tesla's future financial success. See Also: Elon Musk Says They 'Arrested' And 'Killed' Peanut The Squirrel But Didn't Try To File Charges In Epstein Client List -- PNUT Token Soars 5% Why It Matters: The Grok 4 launch occurs amid xAI's broader expansion, including its Memphis supercomputer facility that recently received permits for natural gas turbine operations despite community opposition. The company reportedly plans to deploy one million GPUs sourced primarily from Nvidia Corp. NVDA and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD. xAI's valuation has surged to $113 billion following its March acquisition of social media platform X, formerly Twitter. The company recently completed a $300 million share sale and continues pursuing $20 billion in equity funding at valuations potentially reaching $200 billion. Musk's focus on xAI development comes as Tesla faces autonomous vehicle competition and mounting pressure from shareholders regarding his time allocation across multiple companies. He recently withdrew from his Department of Government Efficiency role. Read Next: Nvidia Sometimes Feels Like America's Only Bargaining Chip In Trade Standoff With China, Says Jim Cramer: 'Own It, Don't Trade It' Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: JRdes / Shutterstock.com AMDAdvanced Micro Devices Inc$138.400.42%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum28.94Growth96.91Quality78.19Value13.72Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMSMorgan Stanley$141.350.16%NVDANVIDIA Corp$163.362.10%TSLATesla Inc$296.20-0.54%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Grok AI to be available in Tesla vehicles next week, Musk says

Grok AI will be available in Tesla vehicles next week "at the latest," the EV maker's CEO, Elon Musk, said in a post on X on Thursday. Musk's AI startup xAI launched Grok 4, its latest flagship AI model, on Wednesday. While Musk had earlier said Tesla vehicles would be equipped with Grok, the billionaire CEO had not shared a timeline. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The AI chatbot has been in hot water this week after social media posts on its X account were removed after complaints from X users and the Anti-Defamation League that Grok produced content with antisemitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler.

Elon Musk will integrate the Grok chatbot into Tesla vehicles

The chatbot generated a lot of negative publicity due to offensive and far-right remarks. However, Musk was undeterred by the PR disaster and announced on X that Grok would soon be implemented in cars. He did not specify whether the integration would be limited to the US or expanded to other countries. The exact functions of Grok in vehicles also remain unclear. Musk also plans to integrate Grok into Tesla's humanoid Optimus robots, which are scheduled for mass production. "Smartest AI in the world" Musk recently unveiled an updated version of Grok, which he described as "the smartest AI in the world." The previous version, Grok 3, sparked outrage for making antisemitic remarks and praising . Musk's company, xAI, subsequently promised to limit Grok's hateful comments.