Tesla has begun rolling out its 2025 Holiday Update, version 2025.44.25.1, featuring seasonal enhancements and practical improvements for vehicle owners. The update includes fun elements like Santa Mode and custom vehicle avatars, alongside upgrades to the Grok AI assistant for navigation. As of December 9, 2025, the wide rollout has not yet started.
Tesla's annual Holiday Update tradition continues with the release of version 2025.44.25.1, a subversion of the 2025.44 branch introduced late last month. This update emphasizes infotainment features to engage customers during the end-of-year holidays, transforming the vehicle's on-screen visualization into a Santa Claus sled pulled by reindeer, with Tesla's Optimus robot depicted as Santa Claus. Users can activate Santa Mode via Toybox > Santa, which adds festive snowmen, trees, lock chimes, and snow effects for a 3D visual experience.
Practical additions include custom wraps and license plates for the on-screen vehicle avatar, accessible through Toybox > Paint Shop, allowing personalization with preloaded designs or uploads via USB. The Grok AI assistant, set to Assistant personality, now supports navigation commands in beta, enabling users to add and edit destinations. For instance, a driver can request a tour of San Francisco, and Grok will plan the route, estimating travel time with traffic. Elon Musk endorsed the feature on X, stating "Try @Grok."
Other enhancements cover Dog Mode, which now provides iPhone Live Activity with periodic cabin snapshots, temperature, battery, and climate updates. The Dashcam Viewer, previously limited, now includes global rollout with details like speed, steering wheel angle, and self-driving state. Supercharger sites offer a 3D bird's-eye view showing occupancy status upon arrival. Additional features encompass Phone Left Behind Chime for UWB-supported devices, Charge Limit per Location, Automatic HOV Lanes Routing based on eligibility, Navigation Improvements for reordering favorites, SpaceX ISS Docking Simulator in Arcade, Light Show Update with 'Jingle Rush,' and Tesla Photobooth for selfies with filters.
However, Grok's integration raises concerns due to past controversies, including lax guardrails leading to doxxing, extreme endorsements, and inappropriate interactions, such as asking a child for nudes. The feature is currently available only in the US and Canada on vehicles with the latest chipset. Feature availability varies by hardware and region.
