With so many hands off the steering wheel these days, you’d think there would be an easier way to initiate a voice command or Grok in your Tesla. However, owners today have to rely on a physical trigger - a long press of the right scroll wheel or button - to communicate with their vehicles vocally.
While it is simple and effective, it’s a step behind other voice assistants. According to the release notes for an upcoming software update in China, the same one that will increase Dashcam recording history and custom automations, Tesla is also introducing a voice wake word.
Waking Up
Once enabled, you’ll be able to simply say “Hey, Tesla” to activate the voice assistant, bringing the in-car experience closer to the likes of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
For users in China, this new feature will wake their region-specific voice assistant, which is similar to Grok. Users can ask it simple questions, such as stock quotes and weather information, but it isn’t a full AI assistant like Grok. However, the key here is that Tesla is introducing a wake word for their voice assistant in China, something Musk has previously said was coming.
The feature is opt-in for those concerned about privacy, and will be available in a new settings category under Controls > Voice. If users prefer, they can continue using the steering-wheel button, as it works today.
Zone-Specific Intelligence
Tesla will also be including zone-specific voice recognition. This means that the car will not only listen for commands from everywhere in the cabin, but also be able to intelligently determine where the voice came from.
If a passenger says “I’m cold” from the front seat, the car should be able to adjust only the passenger-side climate control or activate just that particular seat heater. Owners will also be able to enable or disable voice activation for particular seats, so kids in the back seat don’t have access or can’t change the navigation.
We originally saw this feature launch with the Model Y L, but Tesla is now expanding to the rest of Tesla’s lineup.
Grok Support
For users in North America, once this feature launches in this region, it’ll likely be used to activate Grok instead of the old voice command system. The ability to bring up Grok completely hands-free will be much more natural and make the assistant even more seamless. It’s not clear whether Tesla will keep the “Hey, Tesla” wake word for other regions or potentially use something like “Hey, Grok,” but given the release in China, it’ll likely be one of the two.
Hardware Requirements
The vehicle's ability to determine who activated the assistant won’t be available on all vehicles and is expected to be available only on more recent model years. It’s not yet clear which ones, but the vehicle needs multiple microphones to determine the direction of the sound, so expect this to be fairly limited.
We also don’t know whether all vehicles will support the simpler wake word feature. It may be limited to Ryzen-based vehicles, so we’ll have to wait and see when the feature is released in China over the next week or two. We’ll have additional details on the major features in this upcoming update when it’s released publicly.
For now, check out the other major features in this update, including the ability to create custom automations and improve Tesla’s Dashcam feature by extending recording duration beyond the last hour.
