Last month, Elon Musk torched years of Tesla phone rumors once again, declaring that Tesla is not working on a smartphone.

In the very same response, however, he unveiled what he believes the future of mobile computing will look like, and it is drastically different from what we know and are used to today. 

Personal phones loaded with compute would be replaced with slimline AI edge nodes — thin clients. These aren’t your regular devices loaded with apps or operating systems, but instead an inference endpoint that pings servers to generate real-time content on demand. That means a few radios, a screen, speakers, and a light processor and memory to run the entire thing.

Elon Musk: “I am not working on a phone. I can tell you where I think things will go, which is that we’re not going to have a phone in the traditional sense. What we’ll call a phone will really be an edge node for AI inference with some radios to connect. Essentially, you’ll have… pic.twitter.com/t0z28CVmKU

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) October 31, 2025

The product will offer a seamless experience that anticipates your needs and wants without even having to tap a device. This is the end vision of general-purpose artificial intelligence, and it might not be as sci-fi-sounding as it seems, especially with autonomous cars and humanoid robots already on the horizon.

Slimline Edge Nodes

At its core, Elon’s vision strips devices down to the bare essentials. That means low-power, low-cost hardware optimized for AI output, not storage or processing bloat. There’s no need for an operating system or applications — AI simply delivers you a UI and data for the particular use case.

The edge node acts as a client for server-bound AI. You speak or gesture, and it relays minimal data to the cloud. Servers crank out photorealistic video or simulations in milliseconds, streamed back for instant rendering on your device. Just like how FSD predicts the decisions of drivers around it, these edge nodes would predict what your next coffee order would be.

This mirrors the way that people around the world are putting AI into use every day. The vast majority of AI applications are off-site, hosted at centralized sites, running massive models that crunch insane amounts of data every second. The only requirement for a user is a web browser or a voice interface to interact with it. 

This is a focused and real extension of how Tesla has already implemented xAI’s Grok within its vehicles. None of the processing is handled in-vehicle. The vehicle simply submits a voice snippet of your question; all processing is done on the server with the simple output being sent back to the client.

Similar to the experience of letting Grok tell you a story or teaching you a language on the run, this vision replaces your phone with an endpoint that provides text, video, and other AI-generated experiences at your fingertips.

NeuroLink — The Ultimate Edge Node

This isn’t isolated futurism; it is the playbook towards AGI that Tesla and xAI are building together. FSD Supervised relies on end-to-end neural networks that ingest billions of miles of fleet data to predict trajectories without rule-based code. Edge nodes apply the same: no discrete apps, just fluid AI flows.

Imagine summoning your Cybercab by speaking to your device. A few seconds later, on-screen, you see a real-time AR simulation of the arrival details, your route’s traffic, and everything else you need to know for your upcoming trip.

Broadening that integration is the next obvious step. Optimus robots, with their on-device vision and manipulation AI, could sync as mobile edge extensions. Neuralink? An ultimate edge node, bypassing screens for direct brain interfaces. 

Challenges on the Horizon

No revolution like this is without friction. Edge nodes demand ultra-low latency, as even a handful of milliseconds of delay could break immersion. Plus, power efficiency is key – having full-blown inference in vehicles is fine, but that same inference in your slimline edge-node is overkill — no one is strapping a battery pack to themselves and walking around in public.

The biggest challenge isn’t technical — it’s cultural. Privacy has already proven to be a challenge with wearable AI devices that have taken the tech world by storm, and many have found themselves unable to get a foothold outside the early adopter world. Today’s societal focus on privacy and individuality simply means that this type of change to an AI-driven world will be a challenge, and having your every action watched by AI may not be what everyone wants.

Another challenge remains with authenticity. AIs have a tendency to hallucinate content, whether it be in images and video, or even in just writing. Models have come a long way from where they were just a couple of years ago, but ensuring things are accurate and correct will remain a challenge with AI models, which are likely feeding on data generated by other AI.

A 5-Year Bet

Elon’s prediction is that this future will come to pass within five short years, at least in some semblance. While AI has seen massive strides just recently, especially with video generation, it still struggles to make worlds that physically make sense, or even remember a continued conversation once the maximum memory buffer is reached.

That means that Tesla and xAI’s teams will have a lot of work to do to build this future that Elon is envisioning. A phone is simply today’s, soon-to-be-outdated technology; Musk is aiming for something much larger.

Tesla has launched a new 30-day trial of FSD in North America. The trial will include FSD v14.2 and, therefore, is only available for vehicles with HW4.

Eligible Tesla owners should receive an email or an in-app message letting them know they’re eligible to try the latest version of FSD for free.

FSD Trial

All Tesla software updates now include FSD, meaning that as long as FSD is available in the vehicle’s region and the owner buys or subscribes to FSD, then the vehicle will instantly have access to FSD.

However, since Tesla is still included FSD v13.2.9 with the latest FSD updates, vehicles will need to download and install a FSD update with FSD v14.2 in order to begin the trial.

FSD V14.2.1

Tesla recently started rolling out FSD v14.2.1, but that update is still only going out to a small set of customers. Most users who receive this trial are expected to receive FSD v14.2. FSD v14.2.1 includes one new feature in the release notes, which Tesla states as:

“Camera visibility can lead to increased attention monitoring sensitivity.”

Pause Trials

If you have to bring your Tesla in for service during the trial, the trial is paused if the vehicle is in service for more than a day.

That means you won’t lose part of your free month trial just because the car was out of commission — you get the full 30 days once it’s back.

Past Trials

Tesla has recently been rolling out a free trial of FSD with every major FSD release, roughly every year or so. They included a free trial with the releases of FSD v12, v13, and now v14.

This gives customers another chance to try out FSD for free. This is especially important for customers who may have subscribed to FSD, but concluded that the software wasn’t good enough at the time. This gives these owners a free way to try FSD again — potentially converting them into subscribers.

Current Subscribers

If you’re already subscribed to FSD, Tesla has typically offered these owners a free month as well. However, it’s not clear whether they’re offering that this time around.

If you bought FSD outright, you already own the feature — so the trial doesn’t really affect you.

Requirements

Tesla is offering the FSD v14.2 trial to most vehicles available in North America. While it’s available across all their models, including the Cybertruck, it’s exclusive to HW4.

It also requires the installation of FSD v14.2 or FSD v14.2.1, which are updates 2025.38.9.5 and 2025.38.9.6, respectively.

The trial is available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

Every year, Tesla drops a massive Holiday Update packed with features, improvements, and fun extras—and 2025 won’t disappoint. Owners mark their calendars for this one.

If you haven’t followed Tesla’s Holiday releases before, check out the past updates or last year’s 2024 Holiday Update. Some features feel like safe bets, but the real joy is in speculating about what Tesla might sneak in next—and collecting ideas from drivers along the way.

We’ve already created a wish list for the Tesla app, and today we’re going to look into some of the most requested features for Tesla’s infotainment system.

CarPlay

CarPlay is at the top of this list. While some people dislike the idea of using CarPlay, it’s at the top of the wish list for many users. After the recent leak, if we don’t receive CarPlay, or at least AirPlay support in this upcoming holiday update, it’ll surely be a huge disappointment for many.

CarPlay lets users use their favorite map apps like Waze or Apple Maps, and it also allows them to use apps that Tesla is unlikely to implement, such as podcast apps like Overcast or music apps for less popular music services.

While CarPlay integration won’t be perfect due to a redundant experience and the inability to use some Tesla features, such as FSD, without using Tesla’s navigation system, it’ll provide many users with better app support.

Grok Improvements

The current voice command system is functional, but rigid. Grok’s integration is currently focused on providing answers, entertainment, and the occasional language tutoring in the U.S. and Canada. Rolling these two features together is almost a natural next step.

Rather than stopping to try to figure out where the nearest restaurant with good food is, simply asking Grok to find one along your route and redirect you is a far simpler approach.

With the holiday update, we’d love to see Grok improvements, including voice command integration, a wake word, and expansion into more countries. While these may not all come at once, it’d be nice to receive at least one of them in this year’s holiday update.

Group Text Support

It is 2025, and Tesla’s messaging interface still struggles with group chats. If you receive a group chat message and then reply through the Tesla interface, you’ll end up sending a direct message to that person, rather than to the group chat.

Proper support for RCS messaging and group chats should be achievable, and it’s one of the most requested items.

Spotify Hi-Fi / Apple Hi-Fi

Spotify recently launched its Hi-Fi service worldwide, but the only Hi-Fi option available in your Tesla today is through TIDAL. Having access to other Hi-Fi audio services, including Spotify and Apple, would make a big difference in audio quality, especially on Tesla’s industry-leading audio systems.

Dolby Atmos Support

Many vehicles now come with proper Dolby Surround/Atmos support for both audio and video, but Tesla remains one of the standouts without proper implementation of spatial audio. A software codec update to decode Dolby Atmos tracks from Spotify, Apple Music, and TIDAL would be a big plus.

X App

With Grok already directly integrated into Tesla vehicles, getting proper integration for X is also a feature many would like to see. While X is accessible in the web browser, the interface is not designed for touchscreen use, and can be a challenge to type on as well. A native, optimized X feed for the main screen with video support would be a natural addition.

Notifications

While Tesla supports text messaging, people now use a variety of apps to message and chat with friends and colleagues. We’d love to see Tesla add the ability to show notifications from your mobile phone beyond just text messages.

Users would be able to see alerts from apps like WhatsApp, X, and others that they configure.

Improved Visualizations

Ever since Tesla update 2025.38, Tesla software has included many new model visualizations from skateboarders and trailers to strollers and golf carts — 15 new visualizations in all.

While Tesla quietly enabled some of these visualizations for some users, likely for testers, they haven’t been abled across the fleet yet. It’s possible that this could happen with the holiday update. It’ll hopefully not only be included for those with FSD, but with normal Autopilot as well.

Tesla is using a new engine for visualizations in the new Model S and Model X. While visually the models look identical, it should allow them more flexibility to create better animations in the future.

Parked Visualization for Intel

While Tesla enabled a beautiful full-screen visualization for AMD vehicles with last year’s Spring Update, many users would love this to apply to older Intel vehicles as well.

While these visualizations rely on shadows and reflects, Tesla could add a simplier visualization for Intel vehicles that showcase the car nice and big while parked.

Productivity Apps

The Mobile Office concept needs a boost. Tesla already offers a native Zoom app for AMD vehicles, but support for Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Slack, and Discord would be a great addition. While you can navigate to any of those apps in the web browser today, you can’t use your in-cabin microphone to join a call (but you can listen in).

Steam Gaming

The removal of Steam support from Model S and X vehicles was a big disappointment, and Tesla Arcade updates are few and far.

With such a big screen sitting idle, it simply makes sense for Steam (or Steam Link, using your hardware at home for streaming) to be built into every Tesla vehicle at this point. There have been some hints that Tesla was looking into this again, so we’re still hopeful.

Custom Entry Sounds

We’ve got custom lock sounds, fancy new entry animations (on the refreshed Model S, X, and Y Performance), but we don’t have the ability to set a custom entry sound quite yet.

That’ll be a fun little feature with a relatively low impact.

Custom Wrap and License Plate Visualization

The Cybertruck already supports custom wraps that allow you to create any image and use it a wrap on your vehicle. However, it’s currently limited to the Cybertruck even though Tesla has already said other models will receive the feature too.

The Cybertruck also supports license plate visualizations, allowing you to put your actual license plate in the vehicle’s visualization or create a custom one.

Both of these features bring more personalization to the vehicles and are expected to arrive in the future and it’s time may be just a few weeks away.

AirPlay, Google Cast Support

The rear screen in the vehicle lets rear passengers watch video while the vehicle is driving, making road trips more enjoyable. However, you can only easily play something from the list of video providers that Tesla supports. We’d love for Tesla to add AirPlay and Cast support for the front and rear screens, letting users play video from almost any source, quickly and easily.