Tesla has officially begun rolling out its Grok AI assistant to vehicles in New Zealand and Australia, starting with Hardware 3 (HW3) equipped models through software update 2026.2.6.1. The over-the-air update marks the third major international expansion of Grok, following its North American debut last summer and a European launch earlier this month.
The rollout is proceeding in a phased approach, with HW3 vehicle owners receiving access first. Hardware 4 (HW4) vehicles are expected to receive the update in additional waves over the coming days.
The update applies to Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y vehicles equipped with an AMD Ryzen processor, running software version 2025.26 or later, and connected via Premium Connectivity or Wi-Fi.
What Grok can do in your Tesla
Grok, built by Elon Musk’s xAI, replaces rigid voice commands with a conversational AI assistant that understands natural language. Drivers can choose from multiple voice personalities, ranging from “Storyteller” to “Unhinged,” and use Grok as a personal navigation guide.
Key capabilities include:
- Setting and editing navigation destinations using natural speech
- Finding nearby restaurants, Superchargers, or points of interest contextually
- Planning multi-stop routes and optimizing errand orders
- Conditional routing, such as adding a stop only if it does not add more than a set number of minutes
- Answering general knowledge questions hands-free while driving
Requirements and limitations
Grok is currently in beta and does not yet support voice commands for vehicle controls such as media playback or climate settings. Tesla’s existing voice command system remains fully functional alongside Grok.
To activate Grok, you can press and hold the right scroll wheel on the steering wheel and set the personality to “Assistant”. Tesla currently doesn’t require a separate Grok account or subscription, although they acknowledge that this requirement might change in the future.
Owners of older vehicles with Intel Atom processors (MCU2) cannot access Grok at this time, as the feature requires the AMD Ryzen chip found in Teslas manufactured from approximately mid-2021 onward. Tesla has indicated it is working on bringing Grok to Intel-based vehicles, but no timeline has been confirmed.
Global rollout momentum
The New Zealand and Australia launch represents the third wave of Grok’s international expansion. The AI assistant first arrived in North American Teslas in mid-2025 with software version 2025.26. Europe and the UK followed in mid-February 2026 with update 2026.2.6, after delays related to GDPR compliance and the EU AI Act.
As of late February 2026, the parent 2026.2.6 build has reached approximately 12–13% of the global Tesla fleet. Tesla is expected to continue expanding Grok’s availability to all official service regions, with the exception of China, where data privacy regulations require a separate localized Smart Assistant.
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