Tesla is replacing its voice command system in China with an intelligent assistant, allowing owners to have conversations with their EVs. The change is also poised to land in the US as soon as next month if a recent report proves true.
Elon Musk's xAI company launched the Grok AI chatbot in November 2023, and initial reports paint it as a worthy runner-up to OpenAI's ChatGPT. It's still not as advanced or polished, but probably just as good as ChatGPT-3 was in its heyday. So far, Grok has only been available to select users with a Premium+ subscription to Elon Musk's social media network X (formerly Twitter). Still, the intelligent assistant might soon expand from smartphones' screens straight into cars' dashboards.
Having voice assistant systems inside cars has been a long-time desire of many carmakers. Years ago, many of them rushed to introduce their own versions of Apple's Siri or Google's Assistant, with little success, though. In the end, carmakers failed to turn their proprietary voice assistants into something useful. Apple, Amazon, and Google have also failed to make their assistants very useful. Either because of the language barriers or the limited usefulness, voice assistants in cars have been a dead-end.
However, this doesn't mean it has to remain so. Technology has advanced, and generational AI is now good enough to use natural language in more meaningful ways. Anyone who has used ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot knows that we're on the brink of having conversations with computers and being oblivious to the fact that it's not a human on the other end of the line. With this technical advancement, we're very close to having artificial intelligence do more for us inside our vehicles.
Tesla update 2023.44.30.8, which in our world counts as a bug fix of a bug fix of a bug fix release, is much more feature-packed in China. Among the changes it brought is an upgrade to the in-car voice command system. This marks the first time an AI voice assistant is deployed inside a production vehicle, although many carmakers have just announced similar intentions at CES 2024.
Unlike current voice commands, which only translate your voice input into commands, the voice assistant can actually respond to your questions. You can have a meaningful conversation with it, including about the weather, stock prices, and others, all in a natural voice. It can also double as an owner's manual, as it can answer questions about the car, on top of anything the previous voice command system was able to do.
Tesla doesn't say if Grok or a separate AI system powers the voice assistant. Still, it would probably not make sense to develop two similar projects. In fact, Elon Musk has hinted at Grok running natively on Tesla EVs in a post on X. While the feature is rolling out in China, it might not take long before we'll be able to also use it in the US and other Western markets. According to a report by Teslascope, the EV maker is planning a similar move as soon as February.
According to the report, Tesla is already testing "FSD Beta control overrides and mode shifting" with the new voice assistant feature. Since the account said it could not share more details about it until February, we take this as a timeframe for a public release. Teslascope confirmed that this is very similar to the voice assistant feature deployed in China, so stay tuned for more on this exciting new feature.
Before we go, here’s something to discuss as a “one more thing”:
Tesla has been internally testing basic Full Self-Driving (Beta) control overrides and “mode shifting” via the new voice assistant feature.
Not related to V12.1.1. Can’t share more details until February.
After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions. Full profile
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