Tesla’s Grok voice assistant can now do a lot more inside the car than answer questions. As part of the 2026 Summer Update (software version 2026.26), Tesla expanded Grok to place phone calls, search for and play music, adjust the climate system, open the glovebox, and navigate through the Settings menu, in addition to the navigation commands it already handled — according to Tesla’s own support page and confirmed by Not a Tesla App’s breakdown of the update.
You can reach Grok three ways: tap the App Launcher and select Grok, press and hold the steering wheel’s voice button, or say “Hey Grok” once you’ve turned on that wake word under Controls > Audio > Grok Settings.
The catch is that not every Tesla can use the expanded version, and it isn’t just about which software version you’re on. Tesla’s support page states Grok requires an AMD processor and vehicle software 2025.26 or later. Not a Tesla App’s reporting is more specific: the vehicle-command features are limited to cars with AMD Ryzen infotainment processors, and are not available on cars still running the older Intel Atom chip — regardless of software version. Tesla switched from Intel to AMD Ryzen in new production starting in late 2021, with the transition largely complete by the second half of 2022, so which chip you have generally comes down to when your car was built.
To check which one you have, go to Controls > Software > Additional Vehicle Information and look for “Infotainment processor.” It’ll list either Intel Atom or AMD Ryzen. If you see Intel Atom, Grok still works for basic questions and navigation, but you won’t get the phone-call, music, climate, or glovebox commands from this update — and Tesla hasn’t given a timeline for whether or when that will change. You’ll also need an active Premium Connectivity subscription or a stable Wi-Fi connection either way, since Grok doesn’t run without a data connection.
One more thing worth knowing if you’re outside North America: Tesla has also been widening where Grok’s wake word and vehicle commands work at all, expanding into more of Europe and parts of Asia alongside this update. As with any staged Tesla rollout, treat this as a feature that’s arriving in waves by hardware and region rather than something every owner gets on the same day — if you don’t have it yet on a qualifying car, an upcoming software update is the most likely path to get it, not something you can force today.
Photo by Shuaizhi Tian.