Transcription
You guys have seen tons of full self-driving videos, and you know that it's getting good really, really fast. With FSD, these cameras and neural nets make it see stop signs, dodge squirrels—you name it. But that's where Grock steps in. It's not actually driving the car, though; FSD is still the boss there. It's more like the ultimate co-pilot.
So, it's able to get live traffic updates and weather alerts and then whisper to FSD, "Hey, slow down, the fog's rolling in." "Hey Gro, I am running late; can you take me to Liam's school? Also, avoid all that traffic on Main Street, and I do want to get a coffee on the way." "Hi Kim, I placed your usual order at Starbucks. Would you like to add anything?" "Nope, I'm good." "You will arrive to Starbucks on Peach Tree Street at 1:15, and it should take you approximately 3 minutes to grab your drink. I will have you at Liam's school by 1:30 p.m."
So obviously, this is just a mockup of what is coming very soon to cars, because there is a mad dash to get AI into vehicles right now. GWM says it will install DeepSeek in its vehicles; Leap Motor is doing the same; GIE is building its own AI infrastructure, but it's using DeepSeek. It's going to change everything, from autonomous driving to robotaxi, and what it means for Tesla specifically is huge.
So when Grock and FSD team up, it doesn't just mean cars that drive themselves; it now means cars that can think for themselves. "During my meeting, can you go charge the car with full self-driving engaged?" "I can absolutely navigate the car to a nearby charger during your meeting. Let's say we head to the Peachtree Center Garage; it's close to downtown. I'll drive over, plug in, and get the battery juiced up while you're busy. Just let me know when you're ready to start the meeting, and I'll handle the rest." "Sound good?" "Absolutely." Now that is the future right there.
First off, what exactly is Grock? I know it sounds kind of funny, like a sci-fi robot, but it is actually AI built by another of Elon Musk's companies called xAI. xAI recently launched their latest iteration of it, called Grock 3, which Elon Musk actually calls the smartest AI on Earth. It's designed to compete with some other large language models you guys may have heard of, like OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Alphabet's Google.
So Grock is actually a really fun word that means to understand something really well. It's kind of like when there's a very difficult problem, and then you finally get it, and you have that "aha" moment. It actually comes from a book called *Stranger in a Strange Land* by Robert A. Heinlein, but you don't need to know that to understand what it is. "Can you analyze my driving habits to maximize battery efficiency on a cross-country road trip?" "If you ease off the pedal a little—say, keep it around 60% throttle—and let the regen braking do its magic when you slow down, we could squeeze out another 20% range. Oh, and that AC dropping in a notch could save us a few more miles." "Sound good for this cross-country haul?" "Sounds good, thank you."
At this point, Grock is still a little bit too chatty and tends to interrupt me when I talk, but you really can see the potential. "Fair enough, I'll dial it back a bit; keep it sharp and to the point." So sticking with the plan: ease up on the throttle, lean into regen braking, and notch down the AC. That'll get you solid battery efficiency for the trip. Also, before I get too far into it, please subscribe to our channel. We have a goal this year of doubling our subscriber count, and you guys can really help us out just by clicking that subscribe button.
I want to give you guys a basic understanding of your car. So there are two main systems: we have the MCU, which is the media control unit, and that is all the infotainment—it's the screens that are right in front of you. And then we also have your Autopilot, your full self-driving system, which is often referred to as the full self-driving computer. And then you can actually break it down even further, depending on when you bought your Tesla, because some of these units and computers have changed over the years. For example, MCU 2 refers to the second generation, but the MCU is not involved with Autopilot or FSD functions; it's purely for infotainment.
Now, within the full self-driving computer, there's actually Hardware 3 and Hardware 4, which is now referred to as ai3 and ai4. And then there's Grock, and this is more like the backseat driver. It will not be using Tesla's full self-driving computer; instead, it's a cloud-based system, and it's going to be operating on Tesla's servers. What's important about it being cloud-based is that it ensures that it will run on some of Tesla's older models. So when we talk about that MCU, there's Intel and Ryzen, which are MCU 2 and 3, and it will still be able to run on both of those. Now there might be some problems with the very first version, which is MCU 1, and most of these cars with this early MCU have actually been retrofitted to the second Intel iteration, but that's a whole other video to be made.
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All right, let's get back to the video. If you want to nerd out and find out which MCU you have, you can go into the control tab, you can go to software, and then from here you'll hit additional vehicle information, and then right here for the infotainment processor, it'll say AMD Ryzen; that means you have the MCU 3. Or it could say Intel Atom, which would mean MCU 2, or it could even say Nvidia Tegra 3, which is MCU 1, but that's probably been swapped out.
One of the hot topics has been if ai3 or Hardware 3 would be robotaxi ready, and I specifically asked this question to the head of engineering and chief designer during the robotaxi event, and they confirmed that Hardware 3 would indeed be able to be full self-driving ready. However, a few weeks later, during the Q3 earnings call, Elon Musk said that ai3 would actually need a retrofit to ai4 to be robotaxi ready. There is some chance that that Hardware 3 does not achieve the safety level allows for unsupervised FSD. If that turns out to be the case, we will upgrade those who have bought Hardware 3—have it for free. A major benefit of ai4 is that it has a faster processing capability, and the point of having Grock in your car is having access to that real-time info, so you can see how this can be beneficial. Now, obviously, if you're just using Grock as a basic chatbot, it would still be able to work in older vehicles. However, if you want it to work for robotaxi or full self-driving, you would need that updated hardware, because it would have to be able to interpret the sensor data in real time.
Now here's an example for you guys. Let's go into Grock and actually ask it, "Hey Grock, if you were incorporated into my Tesla and I was in full self-driving and a construction worker was helping to direct the traffic, how would you help full self-driving interpret this data?" "If I'm riding shotgun in your Tesla, I'd tap into the cameras and sensors to spot that construction worker. I'd analyze their hand signals—you know, raised palm for stop, a 'W' for go—and feed that into the full self-driving system super quick. I cross-check it with any traffic signs or cones, too, just to make sure we're all on the same page. Basically, I'd act like a translator, turning those human gestures into clear instructions the car can roll with—smooth and safe; that's the vibe. How's that sound?" "It sounds great."
"What about another scenario that people face in full self-driving called phantom braking, where sometimes the car thinks shadows are obstacles?" "Glad you like that. Now about phantom braking, here's how I picture Grock tackling it. We're gliding along, and the Tesla sensors pick up a shadow—maybe from a tree or an overpass—and it's tempted to slam the brakes. I jump in and say, 'Hang on, let's double-check this.' I'd sift through the camera feed and sensor data real fast, comparing it to what shadows usually look like versus real obstacles. If it's just a shadow, I'd nudge the system to keep rolling—no drama. It's all about cutting through the noise and keeping the ride smooth." "What do you think?" "Sounds great."
So you can really see how much potential there is for Grock to be inside of your car, to really have full self-driving get to that next level and be robotaxi ready. And when Grock is inside the Tesla fleet, it will be sort of like a hive mind, where it will have all the benefits of Waymo, but without any human interaction. Also, if you're not caught up on Tesla news, they've confirmed that robotaxis are going to start doing rides in June this year in Austin, Texas, and they've also said this will not be the Model 3 and the Model Y; it will actually be the robotaxi or the Cybercab. And what's significant about all of this is that that car does not have a steering wheel. So it's different from the competitors like Waymo, where they have a steering wheel, and it's a heavily modified car where it can still have driver input. And all this is just happening incredibly fast. About a week ago, they announced Grock 3, and then this week we have the version of it that you can talk to and interact with. And right now, as of this recording, it's not in your car, but there is a workaround. You can actually go into your browser tab, and you can log in to Grock, and then from here you're actually able to sign into your xAI account—it's only available for premium users—and you can even use your voice controls to talk to it here.
So you guys can see there's tons of overlap between Grock and full self-driving, and it's moving at this incredible pace. It's going to make full self-driving that much better and get there really fast, because it's made using reinforcement learning, so it's able to self-correct. And just to summarize: it's not directly responsible for driving the car, but it can significantly augment the FSD ecosystem in several ways. First, just with voice interaction, you'll be able to ask Grock pretty complex questions, like, "Find the fastest charger with over 250 kW speed and take me there." Grock will be able to interpret this information and then pass it over to full self-driving. Second, Grock's ability to analyze and interpret real-time data and then interpret that to full self-driving. And third, Grock will help enhance FSD training. It's really like adding another layer to the overall ecosystem. Elon Musk has hinted at Tesla's computational resources being leveraged for AI, and xAI's work on Grock 3 reportedly benefits from Tesla's real-world driving data. The symbiosis could mean that Grock helps refine FSD's algorithms by analyzing edge cases or human intervention, improving how FSD predicts and reacts to pedestrian, cyclist, or unusual road conditions.
Obviously, nothing is perfect, and Grock does have some limitations. We know that it is dependent on an internet connection; this has already been confirmed by Musk, whereas with FSD, it is a local system. Now Elon Musk's other company, Starlink, might be able to help there. Also, if Grock suggests something, that doesn't mean FSD will have to do it. FSD is self-sanctioned by its safety protocols and government restraints, so it's not like this bad friend that you know is suggesting bad things to do. FSD is still the ultimate decision-maker. So it's really all about the synergy of how everything works together. At this—this point, I think you guys get it.
The irony of this video is I actually used Grock 3 to help me understand this data. I am not an engineer by any means; I just have a deep fascination with AI, and I love my car, and I love learning about it, and Grock 3 was able to help me understand that in a way that I wanted to be able to share with you guys. So I hope you enjoyed it. Now I wish Grock 3 could go ahead and edit this for me and get it out to you faster, but let me know in the comments below if you guys enjoyed this and if it scares you or you're excited about it. I'll catch you next time. "How's that sound?" "Sounds good." "Anything else you're curious about with the battery?" "Yeah, Grock, I have a birthday party for a 5-year-old girl. Can you go on Amazon and give me some suggestions that I can order for her?" "Oh, a party for a 5-year-old girl—how fun! Since I'm your Tesla assistant, imagine me browsing Amazon while parked at that charger. I'd say, 'All right, let's shop for a 5-year-old's party. How about a Disney Princess party pack with plates, cups, and napkins? She'd love the magic vibes. Or maybe a unicorn piñata kit complete with a sparkly unicorn and goodies to fill it. There's also a Crayola Creativity Tub for crafts—keeps the kids busy with colorful fun."