GoKawiilTesla owner Mike Nelson has been using the AI chatbot Grok in his vehicle for several months now. He finds it is useful, nearly irresistible, and dangerous.
Nelson, a lawyer with a background in auto insurance, showed CNBC how he uses Grok on a drive around the New York metro area. Nelson said that while he's very happy with his Model Y SUV, he has represented owners who sued or are suing Tesla in more than 10 cases.
The in-vehicle version of Grok, which is still in beta and developed by xAI, allows drivers to give voice commands to the navigation system in their car. Grok will also answer a wide range of questions on just about any topic. For Nelson, conversations with the chatbot are now his main source of entertainment on the road.
Tesla is not the only automaker adding AI assistants to its vehicles. Volvo, Rivian, Mercedes, BMW and others are all integrating AI into their cars even though the tech is still in its infancy.
Automakers want to give drivers a hands-free way to access useful information, for example, about where to charge their electric vehicle nearby, how to get there, and whether there's a good place to eat on the way. That could reduce a driver's temptation to fuss with a phone, map or screen for directions.
But AI chatbots also represent a new source of distraction on the road, one that isn't well understood yet, says Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon emeritus professor and expert in autonomous vehicles.
Tesla began rolling out xAI's chatbot to customers' cars in July 2025. (The automaker has also invested $2 billion into xAI, which is now part of SpaceX also run by Elon Musk.)
Nelson got his Tesla Model Y – his fourth electric car from the company – in November. Grok wasn't a "buying point" for him, he said. "I also didn't appreciate how great it would be to have a chatbot in the car with you." But he used it on the first drive, and has been hooked on Grok ever since.
"It's really changed the driving experience for me," he said. "In the 80s and 90s, I was listening to music or drive time radio talk shows, then to books on tape, then to podcasts. And now I don't do any of that. I simply use this to ask questions."
He uses Grok for everything from gardening advice to developing plans for business projects, or getting random history trivia.