Tesla has finally adopted domestic large models. Doubao and DeepSeek are installed in its vehicles, but it's half a year later than Chinese automakers.
Tesla is frantically making up for its shortcomings in intelligence and is going to use domestic large models.
According to a report from CheDongXi on August 22, Tesla recently released the "Terms of Use for Tesla's In - car Voice Assistant". It announced that the in - car voice assistant will be connected to the Doubao large model (Yunque large model) provided by Volcengine and DeepSeek Chat. However, the official has not yet specified the specific launch time.
"Terms of Use for Tesla's In - car Voice Assistant"
The terms state that each Tesla is equipped with a voice assistant function. Car owners can activate the in - car voice assistant through physical buttons, saying "Hey, Tesla" or using a custom wake - up word, and then have a voice interaction with the vehicle.
Tesla is equipped with DeepSeek and Doubao
The terms also show that car owners can use the in - car voice assistant to execute various vehicle voice command functions (such as navigation, media playback, temperature control, etc.). In vehicles that support AI interaction capabilities, car owners can also chat with the voice assistant to get information such as weather and news.
Previously, Tesla's in - car system was often criticized by users for being "unintelligent". Equipping the vehicle with DeepSeek and Doubao may be an attempt to change this shortcoming.
Tesla has installed the large AI model Grok in its vehicles in the United States. However, there are still some thresholds for using it: Only some models can experience it, and only the voice dialogue function is available.
According to a Forbes report on August 20 local time, Tesla's Grok had a major setback, with over 370,000 user chat records leaked, and user passwords and photos were exposed online.
Forbes reported a large - scale leakage of Grok users' privacy
01.
Tesla may change its shortcomings
Improve the intelligence level of the in - car system
As a pioneer in intelligent electric vehicles, Tesla has occupied a place in consumers' minds for a long time with its intelligent advantages.
However, in recent years, with the rapid rise of domestic new - energy vehicle manufacturers, domestic car companies have caught up with Tesla in terms of intelligence and even surpassed it in some aspects.
The most obvious example is the intelligent cockpit. Tesla's voice assistant is even called "artificial stupidity". Complaints about Tesla's intelligent cockpit are often seen in reports from car owners and the media.
Comparing with the models of Chinese new - force car companies, the lack of intelligence in Tesla's in - car system is mainly reflected in the following three aspects.
1. Single voice interaction and slow response, weak natural language understanding ability
Tesla's voice assistant often has a low recognition rate for dialects and cannot support continuous conversations.
According to the evaluation data of in - car voice assistants of various brands by Dongchedi, the voice recognition accuracy rate of the 2025 Tesla Model Y is 92%, but it drops to 85% in a high - speed noise environment, and it lacks the ability for continuous conversations.
Dongchedi's evaluation of in - car voice assistants of various brands
In contrast, the 2025 XPeng G9 equipped with the XGPT 4.0 large model supports mixed dialect commands, achieving a 96% recognition rate in the same test and supporting 20 rounds of continuous conversations.
Xiaoyi in Huawei's Hongmeng cockpit even supports cross - device linkage. Users can directly use voice to control the home air - conditioner to turn on in advance and even imitate the voices of relatives and friends for voice replies.
2. Lack of application ecosystem functions, insufficiently rich third - party applications
Tesla's in - car system only pre - installs some applications, and the navigation data update is lagging. Therefore, its third - party application ecosystem is considered not rich enough. In contrast, some domestic new - force car companies have built an open ecosystem.
The Xiaomi SU7 connects Mi Home devices through Xiaoai. Users can remotely control the sweeping robot to work in the car. When the new Xiaomi SU7 was launched, 12 ecological expansion interfaces were reserved in the whole vehicle, and Xiaomi has officially launched 20 ecological accessories.
The Li Auto i8 is equipped with the Li Auto Tongxue intelligent agent, which can directly call more than 500 functions of the vehicle and can also directly call apps on the vehicle such as Alipay and Meituan.
The Li Auto Tongxue intelligent agent can directly call apps on the vehicle
3. Poor interaction between the mobile phone and the in - car system. Competitors have connected the whole link of people - vehicle - life
Tesla has not opened CarPlay or Android Auto yet. The interaction between the mobile phone and the in - car system is limited to Bluetooth connection, and the navigation address needs to be manually input.
Domestic car companies have achieved seamless interconnection: Models equipped with the Hongmeng cockpit can reuse a large number of applications on the mobile phone. Even Android applications that are not developed for Hongmeng can be projected onto the in - car system and operated through the in - car screen.
The CarWith function of the Xiaomi SU7 can project applications such as navigation, music, and phone from the mobile phone to the in - car screen. After projection, users can directly operate mobile phone applications on the in - car system, such as selecting music and adjusting the navigation route, and the operations are synchronized in real - time.
The NIO Banyan system can automatically recommend idle parking spaces in the parking lot, remind users to take a rest during long - distance driving, and link the in - car entertainment system to play refreshing music. It also integrates services such as hotel reservation and charging pile recommendation, realizing the full - link connection of people - vehicle - life.
Considering that Tesla is equipped with Doubao and DeepSeek, Tesla will accelerate the improvement of the intelligence level of its in - car system.
02.
Tesla's large AI model has limited installation overseas
Over 370,000 user chat records leaked
Previously, Tesla did not officially announce the adoption of any domestic large AI models in the Chinese market. In the United States, the large AI model Grok released by xAI, an artificial intelligence company under Elon Musk, was officially launched through an OTA update in July 2025.
Elon Musk released Grok
Currently, Grok on Tesla models is still in the testing phase (Beta). Only models equipped with AMD processors can experience it, and Grok can have natural language conversations with users but cannot execute vehicle control instructions, such as setting navigation, opening and closing windows, and adjusting the air - conditioner.
The overseas public opinion environment for Tesla's Grok is not optimistic.
According to a Forbes report, up to 370,000 AI chat records on the Grok platform under Musk's xAI were made public, and users' uploaded photos, spreadsheets, and documents were all indexed by search engines.
Forbes reported a large - scale leakage of Grok users' privacy
It is reported that without corresponding security protection, the content shared by users will be directly crawled by search engines such as Google through the generated links. This means that as long as you search for "Grok chat", you may directly see these conversation contents. The communication information between users and AI may become publicly available resources on the Internet.
The leaked content is not just ordinary chats. Some people tried to invade encrypted wallets, and some users' names, personal information, and passwords were also leaked.
So far, Grok has not responded to this.
Grok 4 is the latest - generation AI model launched by xAI under Elon Musk in July. Musk claimed at that time that it was "the most powerful AI model in the world" and its performance in dealing with academic problems had reached the doctoral level.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
On August 11, Musk announced on a social platform that Grok 4 is now free for all users. Free users are allowed a small number of queries per day, and subscriptions are required if the limit is exceeded.
Grok 4 is free to use
03.
Conclusion: Tesla China intensifies the competition in the intelligent cockpit
Tesla's move to introduce DeepSeek Chat and the Doubao large model is essentially a pragmatic choice for Tesla to better meet the needs of the Chinese market in the competition of intelligent cockpits.
For the industry, what is more worthy of attention is: As more and more car companies embrace large models, how to avoid "homogenization of interaction" and truly integrate the capabilities of large models with users' real - life scenarios and vehicle hardware characteristics may be the core proposition for realizing the value of intelligent cockpits.
This article is from the WeChat public account "CheDongXi", author: Er Yan, editor: Zhi Hao. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.