Overview

• Tesla posted documents confirming it will add DeepSeek and ByteDance’s Doubao to vehicles in China, beginning with the new Model YL.
• DeepSeek will function as the in‑car chatbot while Doubao will handle voice commands and direct vehicle interactions with a new “Hey, Tesla” wake word.
• Electrek reports the systems will run on ByteDance’s Volcano Engine cloud, aligning with common local hosting practices.
• In the U.S., Tesla’s xAI Grok runs in cars without access to vehicle controls, and Bloomberg has reported Grok’s China rollout faced legal or regulatory hurdles.
• The move follows weakening performance in China, with deliveries down 8.4% from December to June and market share reported at 7.6% year to date, and it marks a reversal from Musk’s earlier skepticism of DeepSeek.