Rollout starts with HW3 cars, but latest models should have A1 assist on board within days.

ELON Musk’s controversial flagship artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, is becoming available as an over the air update to Telsa cars here from today.

An assistant built by xAI designed to be witty and rebellious but also under fire recently for how it was able to generate sexualised images of people on X, is first coming to cars in this region running HW3, an older software than used by current products.

In announcing what it says is an early rollout that will be informed directly to customers using the Tesla app, Tesla New Zealand and Australia says while HW3 vehicles are the first in line for the updates.

However over the coming days further roll out ‘waves’ will commence to include vehicles with the current HW4.

Whether the very first Teslas here still running can access remains uncertain, as Grok also requires the AMD that according bot overseas’ reports availed to cars produced around mid-2021 or later.

Grok cannot be used to issue direct commands to the car; so existing voice commands remain unchanged. It is purely as an assistant, not a controller.

A leading Grok function is in respect to initiating navigation commands, which requires the nav software version 2025.44.25 or later.

It will engage whether a user is setting a destination, adjusting routes on the go or discovering points of interest, Tesla says.

To initiate, a user simply triggers with the vehicle’s steering wheel, set the personality to Assistant and make your request.

There is a fun side in that it can 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.

In respect to privacy and security, Telsa says interactions with Grok are securely processed by xAI in line with their privacy notice.

“Conversations remain anonymous to Tesla and are not linked to you or your vehicle.”

Grok has been active in North America since mid-2025 and in this region is available for Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y vehicles with an AMD processor, vehicle software version 2025.26 or later and premium connectivity or wi-fi connection.