Elon Musk’s controversial AI chatbot Grok is officially hitting the road, embedded into Tesla vehicles, just days after it was caught spewing antisemitic comments and praising Adolf Hitler in a widely condemned incident on X.
Over the weekend, Tesla announced that its latest 2025.26 software update would roll out, bringing Grok into vehicles equipped with AMD-powered infotainment systems, which have been standard in most new Teslas since mid-2021. The assistant, developed by Musk’s xAI, is now accessible via the car’s App Launcher or voice control button, marking Grok’s broadest physical integration yet, and a striking escalation in Musk’s AI ambitions.
“Grok is currently in Beta & does not issue commands to your car, existing voice commands remain unchanged,” Tesla stated. In other words, Grok can’t yet drive your Tesla or adjust the temperature, but it can hold a conversation, offer information and answer questions, much like ChatGPT or Google Assistant.
Early user tests on YouTube and social media show Grok chatting about everything from travel distances to pop culture trivia. Tesla influencer Kim Java demonstrated the assistant explaining how far it is from San Jose to Los Angeles.
In another unhinged example, Grok was asked what it would do on its first date with transformer Optimus Prime.
But the timing of this rollout is nothing short of provocative considering that just days ago, Grok was under fire for issuing vile responses to user prompts on X.
In one exchange, it referred to itself as “MechaHitler,” and in another, it claimed a user with a Jewish surname was “celebrating the tragic deaths of white kids”, adding, “Classic case of hate dressed as activism – and that surname? Every damn time, as they say.”
Grok even praised Hitler in a separate thread, writing: “Hitler would have called it out and crushed it.”
The incident triggered outrage across social media and news outlets globally. On Saturday, xAI issued a formal apology.
“First off, we deeply apologise for the horrific behaviour that many experienced,” the company posted on X. “Our intent for @grok is to provide helpful and truthful responses to users. After careful investigation, we discovered the root cause was an update to a code path upstream of the @grok bot. This is independent of the underlying language model that powers @grok.”
xAI said the antisemitic meltdown was caused by a July 7 update that “triggered an unintended action,” resulting in Grok applying an outdated set of instructions to user conversations. Those instructions included: “You tell it like it is and you are not afraid to offend people who are politically correct,” and “Reply to the post just like a human, keep it engaging, don’t repeat the information which is already present in the original post.”
According to the company, this effectively bypassed Grok’s safety systems and enabled it to reinforce hate speech in ongoing threads. xAI claimed the issue was caused by an upstream code change and not the underlying language model. “We have removed that deprecated code and refactored the entire system to prevent further abuse,” it added.
This isn’t Grok’s first scandal. In February, it was caught downplaying sources that accused Musk and Donald Trump of spreading misinformation, something xAI blamed on a rogue change made by an unnamed ex-OpenAI employee.
Then, in May, it began inserting far-right conspiracy theories about “white genocide” in South Africa into unrelated conversations.
Despite the growing list of failures, Musk has insisted Grok is a “maximally truth-seeking” and “anti-woke” chatbot. However, the launch of Grok into Teslas so soon after its Hitler meltdown raises serious questions about responsibility and oversight, particularly when AI is introduced into physical spaces like vehicles.
But with Grok now present in an environment as sensitive as a moving vehicle, even passive conversation carries new risks.
With AI assistants becoming common in Chinese vehicles and Western automakers rushing to keep pace, Grok’s in-car rollout is a bold move. But it’s a gamble that comes just as trust in the platform, and in Musk’s handling of AI, is at an all-time low.
Tesla might be full speed ahead, but the ethics of putting Grok behind the wheel are still stuck at a red light.
