Tesla's In-Car AI Assistant Grok Expands to Chile, Malaysia, and Other New Markets

Tesla is expanding its in-car AI assistant, Grok, to more countries and regions through the 2026.20 software update. The rollout has already begun gradually for vehicle owners, with newly supported areas including Chile, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong SAR, China. Some additional regions may also be included in this deployment phase. Currently, the service remains unavailable in places like Norway and the Czech Republic. Developed by xAI, Grok initially launched in the United States, followed by Canada, and has since been progressively rolled out across Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Following this update, users in newly supported markets gain access to Grok’s full suite of features, including open-ended Q&A, navigation commands, “Hey Grok” voice wake-up, and location-based reminders. Users can activate Grok via the app launcher, by long-pressing the steering wheel’s voice button, or through voice commands. They can also customize Grok’s voice tone and conversational style—for example, choosing between a “Storyteller” or “Casual” mode. In standard assistant mode, Grok supports adding or modifying navigation destinations. Location-based reminders (e.g., “Remind me to buy milk when I’m near home”) require either a Tesla Premium Connectivity subscription or a stable Wi-Fi connection. Grok remains in an early testing phase and, aside from basic route planning, does not yet support voice control of other vehicle functions. Tesla plans to gradually add voice control capabilities for features such as climate settings, lights, and Full Self-Driving (FSD) in future software updates. Additionally, this update introduces automatic encryption for dashcam video clips and a new parental control feature that allows restrictions on in-car app usage.