Tesla Roadster Rocket Is the Cool 'Flying' Car You Can’t Have
Tesla's new Roadster drove up an upside-down ramp, flew off the end, flipped in midair, and landed on its wheels. The livestreamed demo took place October 15 at a SpaceX test site in Texas, where the car also hopped over a row of Teslas that included a Semi truck.
The stunt drew oohs and aahs on social media, especially on X where the announcement gathered over 10 million views.
Even Musk’s former-friend-turned-foe Sam Altman praised it on X, “Wow the new roadster looks quite amazing, good job.” That is a generous take from a guy who reserved a Roadster in 2018 and had to wait 7.5 years to get a refund.
Almost everyone is talking about it, and almost no one who is will get to own one any time soon (if ever).
The trick that makes this car fly is cold-gas thrusters, which are basically compressed air blasted out of nozzles instead of burned rocket fuel. Lars Moravy, Tesla's vice president of vehicle engineering, said 10 thrusters connect to 600 liters of compressed air, and that Tesla borrowed some technology from SpaceX to pull it off.
On paper the car reports a top speed above 230 mph, more than 300 miles of range, and 0-60 mph in under a second. The on-stage test clocked 0.81 seconds, and Tesla lists the single-seat Rocket at under 0.59.
Musk had been teasing this since last October, when he told Joe Rogan the next Roadster could be capable of flight and was “crazier than all the James Bond cars combined.” Tesla now bills it as “the best of the last human-driven cars.”
Tesla has not announced a price for any version, but its reservation page asks $50,000 for the two-seat Performance and $250,000 for the Thrust, with $5,000 due up front and the balance within 10 days.
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