Tesla’s Summer Update Hands Grok the Keys, and Musk’s Empire More Reach

Tesla began rolling out its 2026 Summer Update this week, and for the first time, Grok can dial a phone call, adjust the cabin climate and pop open the glovebox on voice command alone. Tesla published the full release notes on X on Tuesday. The list also covers scored Caraoke sessions, a navigation system that learns a driver’s routine, and several features that just moved from the car to the phone.

Tesla’s shareholders voted against funding Elon Musk’s xAI last November. The board invested $2 billion anyway in January. A month later, Musk folded xAI into a $1.25 trillion merger with SpaceX, the same company whose chatbot now answers Tesla owners’ phone calls and pops open their gloveboxes.

Grok Can Now Dial Your Phone and Pop the Glovebox

The headline change in the release notes is how much Grok can now touch. Tesla says the assistant can make phone calls, search for and play music, adjust the climate, open the glovebox and answer questions about the vehicle itself, all by voice.

That builds on navigation requests Grok already handled, plus the hands free “Hey Grok” wake word Tesla shipped in the Spring Update earlier in 2026. Until now, anything touching climate, media or physical controls still ran through Tesla’s older, more rigid voice command system, separate from the conversational layer.

The update is not only about Grok. Tesla says the mobile app will now show self driving mileage streaks and monthly totals so owners can screenshot and share them, and Caraoke, the karaoke mode Tesla first added back in its V10 software in 2019, now scores singing performance in Park and saves high scores to a driver’s profile.

From Backseat Chatbot to Command Center

Grok’s move into vehicle controls did not happen overnight. Tesla has spent a year widening what the assistant is allowed to do inside the cabin.

1. July 2025: Grok arrives in Tesla vehicles as a conversational chatbot bolted onto the center screen. It answers questions and helps with navigation, but it cannot touch climate, media or any other vehicle function.
2. Spring 2026: Tesla adds the hands free “Hey Grok” wake word. The assistant becomes easier to summon, but climate, media and the glovebox still route through the legacy voice system.
3. Summer 2026: Grok gains control of phone calls, music search, climate and the glovebox, closing the gap between a chatbot and an actual vehicle assistant.

Tesla registered a generative AI voice assistant with authorities in Shanghai this spring, catching up to Chinese rivals whose cars have offered similar voice control for years. NIO’s NOMI assistant already handles complex, conversational commands, and XPeng’s Xiao P system, built with speech technology from Cerence, lets drivers control cabin heating, cooling and seat position by voice alongside navigation and charging stops. Grok is arriving at a feature set much of the Chinese EV market already treats as standard equipment.

Your Voice Commands Go to Someone Else’s Servers

Grok’s answers are not processed on the car’s own computer. The assistant runs on xAI’s infrastructure, which means Tesla itself has no visibility into what owners actually say to it, even as it now controls hardware inside the vehicle.

That separation matters more now that Grok can act on the car, not just talk about it. A voice command to place a call or open the glovebox has to travel out to xAI’s servers and back before anything happens inside the cabin.

Security researchers warn that AI assistants built to remember more about their users also widen the target attackers can aim for, a risk that now extends to whatever Grok logs inside the cabin. Tesla’s back end is not immune either. A supplier breach that leaked internal Tesla files alongside Apple’s surfaced earlier this year, a reminder that a carmaker’s data trail runs well past its own servers and into every vendor that touches it.

The $2 Billion Bet Tesla’s Shareholders Rejected

The corporate story behind Grok is louder than anything in the release notes. In November, Tesla put a nonbinding measure to shareholders asking them to let the board authorize an investment in xAI. About 1.06 billion votes came in favor and 916.3 million against, but Tesla’s bylaws count abstentions as no votes, and more than 473 million shares abstained, enough to sink the measure.

Tesla’s board invested the $2 billion anyway two months later, disclosing the move in a shareholder letter as part of xAI’s $20 billion Series E funding round alongside Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity, the Qatar Investment Authority, Nvidia and Cisco. Tesla’s own board chair, Robyn Denholm, had previously raised concerns, arguing that xAI’s broad ambitions sat apart from Tesla’s narrower focus on energy and transportation.

If there are things xAI can help accelerate our progress, then why should we not do that?

Musk said that on Tesla’s earnings call, defending the investment as part of the company’s broader AI strategy. xAI, for its part, has already bought close to $200 million worth of Tesla’s Megapack batteries, a reminder that money moves both directions between the two companies.

The all stock structure means Tesla’s $2 billion preferred stock position in xAI carried over into the combined company, giving Tesla and its shareholders indirect exposure to SpaceX they never actually voted to acquire. The combined company then pursued an all-primary Nasdaq listing targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation, a bet on orbital data centers and AI infrastructure far removed from any car’s glovebox.

Grok’s Track Record Complicates the Upgrade

Reporting on the SpaceX and xAI merger in February, CNBC noted that Grok had recently come under fire for allowing users to generate sexualized images, including of children. That is the same underlying model Tesla just approved to dial phone numbers and pop open a glovebox on command.

Volvo, Rivian, Mercedes and BMW are all building their own AI assistants, according to CNBC, which tested Grok’s in-car version in New York and found it still in beta as of this spring, used mostly for hands free questions and entertainment on long drives. None of those automakers have handed a chatbot with Grok’s specific history the level of physical control Tesla just enabled.

Caraoke Keeps Score While Navigation Learns Your Commute

Away from Grok, Tesla’s Automatic Navigation now studies more than Home, Work and calendar entries. It learns recurring stops, like a school drop off on the way to the office or a regular gym visit, and can suggest a route before a destination is even typed in. A related change called Preferred Routes leans toward roads a driver actually uses rather than defaulting to the fastest option on paper.

Tesla is also pushing more of the experience onto the phone. Owners can now set their desired Arrival Energy, the battery percentage they want left at a destination, directly from the mobile app before getting in the car. Custom wraps, the ability to change the color and finish of the 3D car rendering on the touchscreen, can now be uploaded from the app instead of copied over on a USB drive. Tesla maintains a public repository of wrap templates and instructions for anyone building a custom design.

For families, a new Rear Display Lock lets kids watch content on the rear screen while restricting control of what plays to the front row. Tesla says its latest premium Model 3, Model Y and Cybertruck all ship with rear screens, so the feature has an actual audience to reach.

The Smaller Fixes Hiding in the Release Notes

Tesla listed a handful of smaller changes alongside the marquee features. None of them will make a headline on their own, but together they round out a fairly dense update.

• Superchargers can now be found by name when searching for a destination
• Apple Music songs can be added to a queue directly from search results or an artist page
• Drivers can set a preferred zoom level for the Self-Driving visualization
• The in-car browser now supports camera and microphone access
• New intro animations play when starting a Model 3 or Model Y

Tesla is pushing the update out now, in waves, the way it always does. Some owners will see it on their car this week. Others may wait a few weeks before it reaches their vehicle’s spot in the queue.