Tesla's 2025 holiday update brings Grok navigation, Santa Mode, and more

Tesla's 2025 holiday update is here, and it's one of the biggest we've ever seen.

The company typically rolls out a big update ahead of the December holidays, and this year was no exception. The 2025 holiday update, which is rolling out "shortly," is a mix of fun, games, and some very interesting new driving and navigation features.

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The biggest new feature in the bunch is Grok with Navigation Commands. According to Tesla, "Grok can now add & edit navigation destinations, becoming your personal guide." To use this feature, you'll have to set Grok's personality to "Assistant."

There's a couple of other navigation improvements, including the ability to set your navigation favorites, including Home and Work, by simply dropping a pin on the map. Furthermore, suggested destination will now show up based on your recent trips and habits (only when you're parked, though).

Finally, navigation now offers optional automatic high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane routing. According to Tesla, if you choose this option in Navigation, "your route will automatically select the carpool lane when eligible, based on time, location, passenger count & road restrictions."

As for charging, you'll now be able to set charge limit per location – pretty useful if you always charge to a certain level at certain locations, such as at home or at work.

Also, some Tesla Superchargers will get a 3D view which you can access by tapping "View Site Map." The view shows a detailed layout of the Supercharger stalls, so you can pick the space you like as you drive towards the Supercharger.

As is typical for Tesla holiday updates, a lot of the new stuff is just pure fun. New features include the Tesla Photobooth, allowing you to take selfies with the car's inner camera and add filters, stickers, and emojis, with the ability to share the photos from your Tesla app.

There's also a Santa Mode, which turns your car into Santa's carriage, a new light show called Jingle Rush, and more customization of your Tesla avatar, including window tints, custom wraps, and license plates (I shudder to think what my Tesla avatar will look like after my daughter finds this feature).

The update brings a new game called the ISS Docking Simulator, allowing you to try your hand at docking your spacecraft with the International Space Station, using controls based on actual interfaces used by NASA astronauts.

Other new features of note include Live Activity on the iPhone when your car is in Dog Mode, with periodic photo snapshots of your vehicle's interior, and live updates on temperature, battery, and climate conditions inside the car. Dashcam clips now include more details, like speed, steering wheel angle, and self-driving state.

There's also a number of minor new features, including the ability to add Spotify tracks to queue from the search screen, and the ability to enable or disable your wireless phone charging pads.

As always, feature availability depends on region and on your car; older vehicles probably won't get all of the updates listed above.

Tesla didn't say when the update is coming, except that it's rolling out shortly.