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Tesla V10 firmware: Netflix, YouTube, Autopilot updates and more

PHOTO: TESLA, TESLARATI

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Tesla’s Version 10 (V10) firmware is on the horizon and will be released to owners starting as early as August, according to CEO Elon Musk. After the company’s Early Access Program results from V10 are assessed and addressed, a wide release of the firmware will follow.

“Depends on how release to owners with early access goes, but hopefully wide release by end of August,” Musk replied on Twitter to a question about V10’s availability.

Several upcoming V10 features were revealed by Musk on Twitter, including new games, infotainment features, improvements in Autopilot behavior on highways as well as better traffic light and stop sign recognition, and Smart Summon (previously Enhanced Summon). Also mentioned was a feature called “Joe Mode” which would lower the volume of Autopilot warnings and notifications by half. Musk additionally noted that some infotainment features will need a premium connectivity package.

In the same conversation regarding the V10 release, Musk provided an update on the all-electric car maker’s support for in-car video streaming while connected to WiFi. Specifically, when Tesla vehicles are in park, drivers will be able enjoy an old school, drive-in movie experience playing videos hosted by Netflix and YouTube as soon as next month. Musk previously teased the streaming support in early April along with free WiFi while Supercharging.

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“Ability to stream YouTube & Netflix when car is stopped coming to your Tesla soon! Has an amazingly immersive, cinematic feel due to the comfy seats & surround sound audio,” Musk announced on Twitter. “[Coming in] Maybe August, not more than a few months.”

Musk emphasized the unique experience the company’s cars offer for movie watchers thanks to the impressive audio system built in to their vehicles. “[It] feels just like an old school drive in movie experience, but with much better sound,” he wrote. Since Tesla is also working towards Full Self-Driving capability, with highway driving features having been available for quite some time already, whether or not video streaming will be possible while on the road was also mentioned. “When full self-driving is approved by regulators, we will enable video while moving,” Musk explained.

While it would make sense for the YouTube and Netflix in-car streaming feature to be included in the V10 package based on Musk’s Twitter comments and the stated timings of the two software updates, it’s possible the two releases will be separate. Following the CEO’s announcement of the in-car video capability, Ryan McCaffrey of Ride the Lightning drew attention to Musk’s prior comments about the feature.

“You’d originally said this was part of software v10. So is v10 coming soon or did these apps get moved up the priority queue? Either way this is very cool news! ??,” McCaffrey asked. Musk’s response seemed to acknowledge the coming release of V10, but didn’t completely clarify whether the streaming would come bundled or separate. “Yes, V10 will include several games & infotainment features, improved highway Autopilot, better traffic light & stop sign recognition & Smart Summon,” Musk replied.

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In-car video playback and streaming will be especially advantageous to Tesla owners while traveling on long road trips with several Supercharging stops, and the company’s recent efforts at making the Supercharger experience more enjoyable have been quite notable, specifically in terms of gaming. In addition to the retro-style TeslAtari Easter Egg, a new racing game played with the steering wheel called Beach Buggy 2: Tesla Edition was added last month to replace Pole Position as part of the new Tesla Arcade. This Arcade feature will eventually include Cuphead and a custom Tesla version of Fallout called Fallout Shelter, as described by Musk and video game designer Todd Howard at E3 Coliseum 2019. More recently, Tesla added support for a second controller for Beach Buggy Racing 2 and Chess to the Tesla Arcade, which included a fun video with the announcement.

Altogether, Tesla’s latest and upcoming features are continuing Musk’s mission of creating “the most fun you could possibly have in a car.”

Accidental computer geek, fascinated by most history and the multiplanetary future on its way. Quite keen on the democratization of space. | It's pronounced day-sha, but I answer to almost any variation thereof.

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Elon Musk

How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts

Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.

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Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.

The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.



Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.

For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.

The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.

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Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi’s real advantage won’t be the ride service

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Concept art of a Tesla Cybercab in Las Vegas Strip as rendered via Grok

For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.

Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.

Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.

Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant

Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.

This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?

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If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

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Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade

Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.

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Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)
Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)

Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.

The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”

The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.

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It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.

The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.

For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.

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