“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.
