We tried out xAI's Grok chatbot while driving a Tesla in NYC. Here's what happened.

a tesla owner named mike nelson has been using xai's grok chatbot in his model y for months. he told cnbc it's useful, nearly irresistible, and dangerous. nelson is a lawyer who has represented owners suing tesla in over 10 cases. he drove cnbc around the new york metro area to show how he uses it. grok rolled out to tesla cars in july 2025. tesla has invested $2 billion into xai. nelson uses grok while tesla's full self-driving (supervised) system is engaged — sold for $99 per month. he said he crossed the george washington bridge, "the busiest bridge in the united states," and was not paying attention to any aspect of the drive. he was talking to grok instead. the national highway traffic safety administration has multiple investigations into fsd safety defects, including a fatal 2023 crash. carnegie mellon professor philip koopman said chatbots are a new distraction that isn't well understood. grok also gave wrong answers during the drive — it first said it could adjust seats and climate, then said it couldn't. nelson said grok is "still very dangerous."