Tesla Europe announced that it would include xAI’s Grok, an AI chatbot, in its vehicle infotainment systems in the U.K. and eight other European markets. It remains to be seen if the addition of this technology will revitalize Europeans’ interest in buying Teslas.
According to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, Elon Musk’s automaker witnessed electric vehicle sales in Europe plummet by 27 percent. The Tesla downturn was also caused by the fact that the use of battery electric vehicles by Europeans continued to rise.
ACEA reported that the BEVs are the only model of Tesla, which represented 17.4 percent of the market across Europe in 2025. China’s BYD gained market share throughout the continent with innovative and more affordable EV models.
Brand Finance reported that Tesla’s lack of affordable new models last year, and a continuing consumer backlash against Musk’s incendiary political rhetoric, and support of anti-immigrant extremists, such as Tommy Robinson in the U.K. and the AfD party in Germany, had weighed on the appeal of the Tesla brand last year.
Tesla is not the only company to incorporate the capabilities of chatbots in its infotainment systems. As an illustration, Volvo has demonstrated that it intends to implement an AI conversation system powered by Google Gemini in its EX60 electric cars.
However, in one of the fourth-quarter financial reports, Tesla announced that it had allocated $2 billion towards the xAI of Musk. Subsequently, the aerospace and defense powerhouse, SpaceX, which is owned by Musk, purchased xAI in a pure stock deal valuing the company at $1.25 trillion.
Before such agreements, xAI had merged with social network X (formerly known as Twitter), and its Grok product had become the subject of myriad regulatory probes in Asia, Australia, and across Europe, including by regulators in Ireland, the U.K., France, and the European Commission.
As CNBC previously stated, Grok enabled users to easily create and share deepfake explicit images based on photos or clips of real people without their permission, including deepfake images depicting child sexual abuse.
Grok created and disseminated antisemitic hate speech on social network X last summer and lauded Adolf Hitler, which has attracted previous regulatory investigations by the European Commission.
The warning of a lack of safeguards by Grok came after a Tesla owner in Canada warned about the issue after it was installed in her vehicle. As CBC stated, her son utilized Grok to create entertaining comments about soccer athletes, and Grok eventually asked the minor to send nudes.
Tesla and xAI have not indicated whether they are able to restrict such access by minors to Grok in Tesla vehicles, or bias the outputs of the chatbot to be child-friendly by default. Besides criticism of Grok’s lax safety guardrails, driver distractibility remains a point of concern.
Mike Nelson, a partner at Nelson Law and an automotive safety researcher, confirmed that his own Tesla Model Y includes Grok in the U.S., and he has been happy using it.
He said that with the chatbot technology also introduced to the infotainment systems of vehicles, a new “distraction layer” has been created for drivers.
Nelson stated, “Research shows that even in hands-free mode, you are more distracted when you are talking on the phone and driving. Adding Grok introduces more stimuli.”
A professor of machine learning and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, Rayid Ghani, informed CNBC that researchers and regulators, and insurance companies especially, might hasten to conduct “practical evaluations” of chatbots.
There is a lack of benchmarking and standards throughout the industry, he said, “We do not yet understand the information needs of drivers, how well Grok or other chatbots fulfill those needs compared to other options, and whether chatbots may change driving behavior and exactly how.” Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
