Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is developing natural-language voice commands that could let Full Self-Driving users describe precise drop-off locations with cues such as house colors, driveways, or nearby landmarks.
Tesla Works On Smarter FSD Voice Commands
Tesla’s vice president of AI software, Ashok Elluswamy, confirmed the work on Tuesday after an X user said FSD would be "twice as useful in neighborhoods" if drivers could tell the car which driveway to use, the way they would guide a human driver.
The user suggested saying, "It’s the white house on the left, just past that SUV," and having FSD remember the location for future trips. Elluswamy replied, "Working on it."
The request targets a familiar last-mile problem for driver-assistance systems: map pins can be wrong, while a person can understand context, such as a parked car, a storefront entrance, or the correct side of a street. A working version would make Tesla’s system more conversational, especially during the final stretch of a trip.
Grok Could Gain Real Driving Authority
The feature also tracks with a timeline Elon Musk floated in June, when he said Grok-based FSD voice control would arrive in "about 3 months or so," pointing to a possible September rollout. Reports said sample commands included "Turn right here," "Drop us off right here," "Drop at entrance first, then park far away" and "Pull forward into the driveway."
The key change would be the control authority. Grok has existed in Tesla vehicles as a conversational assistant since Musk said in July 2025 that it would be available in cars, and reports said Tesla expanded Grok to European vehicles in February 2026. But Grok has not been allowed to direct how FSD actually drives. The new system would push it toward a supervisor role that translates spoken intent into driving decisions.
Safety Scrutiny Still Shadows FSD Expansion
The effort comes as FSD faces safety scrutiny. Reuters reported in May that European regulators raised concerns about FSD’s behavior and branding, including speeding, icy-road use and whether the name could mislead drivers. Reuters also reported in June that independent researchers criticized Tesla’s self-published FSD safety data as misleading.
Tesla has argued its supervised system improves safety. Dutch officials defended their approval of FSD, saying regulators used independent testing rather than Tesla’s statistics, after Tesla said Dutch FSD users recorded 3.5 times fewer collisions than manual drivers.
According to Benzinga Edge Rankings, Tesla stock offers satisfactory Momentum and Quality. It also offers a favorable price trend in the Short, Medium and Long term.
Price Action: Tesla shares were down 0.98% to $398.95 in pre-market trading on Wednesday.
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