The Complete Guide to Tesla Voice Commands (2025)

Tesla's voice system is quietly one of the most capable in any car — and most owners use maybe 10% of it. Beyond 'navigate to work' and 'call home', it can adjust individual rear seat heaters, file a bug report with attached vehicle logs, toggle Autopilot following distance, and in newer vehicles, accept full natural-language instructions through Grok AI. This guide covers everything, including the commands worth actually remembering.

How to Activate Voice Commands

On Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck: press and release the right scroll wheel button on the steering wheel, wait for the chime, then speak. On older Model S and Model X: use the voice button on the right side of the steering wheel. You can also tap the microphone icon in the top navigation bar on the touchscreen. On vehicles with software 2024.14 or newer, 'Hey Tesla' works as a hands-free wake word — enable it in Controls > Voice.

Climate & Comfort

Temperature and fan

The climate commands are more granular than most owners realise. Beyond 'make it warmer', you can say 'set driver temperature to 20 degrees', 'set passenger temperature to 22', 'increase temperature by 2 degrees', or 'set fan speed to 4'. The system also understands natural language: 'I'm cold' and 'I'm freezing' both activate heating. 'Sync climate' and 'unsync climate' control whether driver and passenger temperatures track together.

Vents and defrost

You can direct airflow by voice: 'turn on floor vent', 'turn on face level vent', 'turn on windshield vent'. 'Turn on front defroster' and 'turn on rear defroster' both work — the rear defroster also activates mirror heating as a bonus. For more precise control: 'move driver air left', 'move passenger air up', 'set driver fan right'.

Seat heaters

Seat heaters have dedicated voice control: 'set driver seat heater to 3', 'set passenger seat heater to 2', 'set rear left seat heater to 1', or 'turn on all seat heaters' for everything at once. 'Turn on steering wheel heater' also works. The less formal phrasing 'warm up my butt' activates the driver seat heater — which Tesla has kept in the system apparently without irony.

Parked climate modes

'Keep climate on' holds the climate system running after you exit — useful if you're leaving someone in the car. 'Turn on Dog Mode' activates the screen display that shows passers-by the interior temperature. 'Turn on Camp Mode' enables overnight climate for sleeping in the car.

Navigation

Destinations and routing

The basics work well: 'navigate to [address]', 'take me home', 'go to work', 'find the nearest Supercharger'. You can also search by category: 'find coffee nearby', 'find rest areas', 'show me McDonald's'. 'Cancel navigation' clears the active route. 'Mute voice guidance' silences turn-by-turn audio without pausing music or ending the route.

Map display controls

'Show map' returns to the map from any open app. 'Show traffic' and 'hide traffic' toggle the traffic overlay. 'Show satellite mode' switches to aerial view. 'Use HOV lanes' and 'use toll roads' toggle those routing preferences without opening settings.

Media, Phone & Messaging

Music and audio

'Play [song / artist / album / playlist]' works across Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. 'Set volume to 15', 'turn volume up', 'mute', 'pause', 'next track' all function as expected. 'Open Netflix', 'open YouTube', and 'open Hulu' launch those apps — they're only interactive when the car is parked, but the commands work regardless.

Calls and messages

With a phone connected over Bluetooth: 'call [contact name]', 'call [name] mobile', 'show phone messages', 'text [name] I'm on my way'. Message dictation lets you compose hands-free: 'send a message to [name]' followed by your spoken text.

Car Controls

Doors, locks and access

'Lock doors' and 'unlock doors' work when you're inside or near the car. 'Open trunk', 'close trunk', and 'open the frunk' control the powered boots. 'Open the glovebox' releases the powered glovebox — one of the lesser-known commands. 'Open charge port' and 'close charge port door' control the charge port flap. 'Fold mirrors' and 'unfold mirrors' work on supported models.

Wipers

'Set wipers to auto' hands wiper speed to the car's rain sensor. 'Set wipers to 3' sets a specific speed (levels 1–4). 'Turn off wipers' stops them entirely. 'Speed up wipers' and 'slow down wipers' adjust in relative increments — useful when you don't want to take your eyes off the road to tap the screen.

Driving assistance

'Set following distance to 3' adjusts the Autopilot gap to the car ahead (values 1–7) — much faster than scrolling a wheel on screen. 'Set charge level to 80 percent' adjusts your charge limit when plugged in. 'Start charging' initiates charging if you're already connected.

Power User Commands

Bug report — the most underused command

Say 'bug report' followed by a brief description — for example, 'bug report Autopilot phantom braking on Highway 1'. Tesla's system automatically attaches vehicle logs, sensor data, and camera footage from around the time of your report. These go directly to Tesla's engineering team. If something feels wrong with your car, this is the fastest way to flag it with meaningful data attached.

Useful diagnostics and display shortcuts

'Show me tire pressures' opens the TPMS screen — the same information buried in Controls > Service > Tire Pressure, reached in one command. 'Take a screenshot' saves an image of the current display to any USB drive plugged into the car. 'Show the odometer' and 'show trip' surface driving data without navigating menus. 'Show release notes' opens the latest software update notes.

Security

'Enable sentry mode' activates the parked security monitoring system. 'Save dashcam clip' saves the current dashcam footage — useful immediately after a near-miss or incident, before the rolling buffer overwrites it.

Grok AI — What the New System Can Do

Vehicles with AMD infotainment and software 2025.26 or newer gain access to Grok, an AI assistant that goes well beyond the standard voice system. Set the Grok personality to 'Assistant' mode to unlock driving commands. The key difference: Grok understands natural language and handles multi-step requests in a single command.

Practical examples: 'Navigate to Costco, then the dry cleaners, then home' builds a multi-stop route from one sentence. 'Find a coffee shop along my route' inserts a stop contextually. 'What's the traffic like ahead' gives a real-time answer. General knowledge questions — 'what's the weather in Paris' or 'who won the Super Bowl' — work conversationally. Grok also handles language tutoring, storytelling, and other non-driving tasks via different personality modes. It requires Premium Connectivity or a Wi-Fi connection.

Easter Eggs

Tesla has kept a collection of voice Easter eggs active through software updates. 'Rainbow Road' switches the Autopilot visualisation to a Mario Kart–style rainbow track. 'Ho Ho Ho' activates a seasonal lights and sound mode. 'Man's not hot' turns off all heating simultaneously — a reference to the Big Shaq song. 'Beam me up Scotty' plays a Star Trek transporter sound. 'Open butt hole' opens the charge port, which Tesla apparently found amusing enough to keep in. 'The view from space' shifts the map to a satellite globe view. These survive most software updates, though any given one may disappear in a future release.

Quick Reference

One practical tip: if a command doesn't work on the first try, rephrase it more naturally. Tesla's voice system uses natural language processing, so 'I'm freezing' works just as well as 'increase temperature' — and sometimes better. When in doubt, just describe what you want.