All Model Y L SUVs bound for the Chinese domestic market will ship with DeepSeek and Doubao services integrated into its voice assistant software, the documents on the Tesla official website suggest. Both are provided by ByteDance, the IT company best known for its TikTok video service.
Doubao will be processing the voice input, while DeepSeek will be interpreting it using an LLM. Tesla is actually already using a similar model in the United States, based on Grok AI developed by Elon Musk’s xAI company.
According to Yicai China, Tesla recently signed a partnership agreement with Volcano Engine to streamline the interactions between the car and the driver.
The stretched Model Y L crossover debuted on August 19 with three seat rows and little else to differentiate it from the regular Model Y. Asked whether it may get released in North America as well, CEO Elon Musk said it was still undecided. He added that, even if it were greenlit for the USA, the Model Y L wouldn’t arrive there until late 2026.
Tesla isn’t the only automaker DeepSeek is working together with. Similar agreements have been signed with Dongfeng, BYD, Zeekr, Smart, Leapmotor and Nissan recently. In early 2025, Nissan was among the first non-Chinese automakers to announce the integration of AI into its vehicle lineup.
