r/technology • u/Stukwan • 14h ago
Transportation Tesla turns to 50-year-old stunt technology as it tries to Roadster again
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/10/tesla-turns-to-50-year-old-stunt-technology-as-it-tries-to-roadster-again/19
u/whiskeytown79 12h ago
The Spéirling has also set a faster lap time around the Top Gear test track than an F1 car, blitzed the Goodwood Hill Climb record, and I’m pretty sure would demolish Volkswagen’s untouchable Pikes Peak time if it gave it a shot. McMurtry has sold at least 24 of the planned 100-car production run.
Unrelated to the Tesla, but I found this bit interesting. The Spéirling might actually be able to do it, now that the entire course is paved. It would have struggled on the gravel before, since its incredible downforce depends on maintaining a good seal with the roadway under it.
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u/LostMyKarmaElSegundo 13h ago
While the Roadster was never going to be a car most people could afford, the 2017 version wasn't a total gimmick. Elon and Tesla have completely given up on the mission of the company from 2008. First, the Cyber Dumpster, and now this.
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u/Imaginary_Hamster847 12h ago
At some point it needs to be understood that there was never a real mission. Tesla was well positioned to become a real player, and the choice was made not to do that.
I know someone will point to their stock price, but the quality of the product has been dogshit for years, and with how rich Elon is, he could have easily invested money into making an actual long term venture which builds quality cars. But, that was never the mission. He's a rich idiot banging flashy toys together.
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u/bradlees 12h ago
The stock price is a fake manipulation of the market
Billionaires are buying and selling this stock… not Joe Sixpack
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u/TooLumpy 11h ago
I agree with your first statement but not the second. Everyone buying the s&p 500 index in their retirement accounts is buying the stock.
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u/AlarmingConfusion918 11h ago
Tesla is literally being bought by Joe Sixpack. droves of musk fanboys flock to buy Tesla because they are chasing another 2019-2021 bull run, but the reality is that the stock has been swinging up and down around the same average for 5 years now
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u/MondoBleu 11h ago
In 2026 ytd Tesla sold more than half of EVs sold in the US, the number one brand. The #2 company hasn’t sold 1/10 of what Tesla sold. Globally Tesla is #2 behind only BYD. So I ask you, in what world is Tesla “not a real player”? On what basis do you say this?
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u/ACatWithAThumb 8h ago edited 8h ago
And now look at total global car sales. Tesla is not even in the top 15 of car companies when it comes to sales. In fact, Toyota and VW sell more cars in a single year than Tesla has sold cars in total since founding. Their sales have completely cratered in most countries over the last 2 years, they are basically a US only brand at this point and stopped selling all models besides the 3 and Y.
Tesla has now only 9.8% market share on the EV market in Europe, which accounts for a total market share of just 1.8%. That's even behind Chinese SAIC Motors, meanwhile VW Group is sitting at 25%. In China Tesla dropped similarly hard from 15% to just 6% for EVs and to just 2% for total car sales.
To give some perspective how irrelevant Tesla is in the car industry at this point. If we compare this with phones, Tesla's would be similar in scale to Motorola, while VW and Toyota have Apple and Samsung market share numbers.
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u/Black08Mustang 9h ago
They sold .19 % of all cars in America last year. That down from the year before. They sold 46% of all electric cars last year. They are not even half of a blip on the car market radar.
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u/DarXIV 13h ago edited 12h ago
Muskbots are all over Reddit saying how innovative he is with this.
Edit: here come the Muskbots!
Edit2: sorry bots. Done replying to all of you
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u/Magnus_The_Totem_Cat 12h ago
The real innovation is calling a fixed roof car a “roadster”.
What is it about the right wing not being able to call anything by the correct terminology?
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u/dekan256 11h ago
To be fair right under the image it states that Tesla claims the roof panel is removable, given I consider a Miata with a removable hardtop a roadster still then I will begrudgingly call this one a roadster. That being said I doubt it will enter production, and if it does it will wind up at about 30% of the claimed performance.
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u/Magnus_The_Totem_Cat 11h ago
A fixed rear window with a removable top panel is a Targa Top, not a Roadster. However I would struggle to call it a Targa as the doors come up and over both the driver and passenger. About half what is above the seats is actually the doors leaving just a thin spine of roof. Even if it was removable a panoramic sunroof on an X5 provides more of an opening.
However, based on the pictures so far provided there are no seems in paneling or weather striping to indicate that there is a removable roof.
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u/tempinator 9h ago
The Miata’s hardtop is a motorized retractable roof and the back window goes down with it. I’d describe it as a hard top convertible and not a targa top.
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u/Magnus_The_Totem_Cat 11h ago
The removable “hard top” on any car is not a fixed roof. So 100% a Miata with a removable top is absolutely a roadster. Even by my pedantic standards.
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u/wayfarevkng 11h ago
A Wrangler is not a roadster. A fixed back window makes it a targa top.
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u/Magnus_The_Totem_Cat 10h ago
Wranglers usually need more fixed than just the back window.
Zing!
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u/BrofessorFarnsworth 13h ago
Seems like Yandex still has some datacenters live
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u/Vecna_Is_My_Co-Pilot 13h ago
Like the robot bartender, these are also controlled by some poor sot in Mumbai.
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u/going_up_stream 12h ago
Yandex probably didn't run the bots just the bot's command and control servers
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u/Shigglyboo 12h ago
This morning I saw quote a few with many comments saying “I don’t like him but even I have to admit this is cool” and some variations. Seems astroturfed.
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u/Alain_leckt_eier 11h ago
I mean, a car doing a flip is pretty cool. But it also is utterly stupid and another of Elmos vaporware stunts.
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u/DistributionMean6322 8h ago
Thngs can be really cool and really stupid at the same time. This is a perfect example. Absolutely awesome and completely useless and impractical. I really hope they don't sell any of them haha
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u/DarXIV 12h ago
I got that exact reply in this thread. The bots are always predictable
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u/Unusual_Sherbert_809 11h ago
Has the same energy as "he's not my type but still he's so handsome" 🤢🤮
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u/SecretAgentVampire 11h ago
"I'm not _____, but" is always a red flag.
"I'm not a racist, but..."
"I'm not a Republican, but..."
"I'm not into AI, but..."
People who write things like that are always actually those things and are literally leading with a lie.
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u/csprofathogwarts 9h ago edited 8h ago
I'd to search for what everyone is talking about. Watched this top gear video on it.
So they put a composite tank (COPV) that takes 2-6 hours to fill with nitrogen gas at 10000 PSI (680 atm). That can be used one time only to give you thrust for 5 seconds allowing you to cover 1/3-2/3 of quarter-mile (133m - 266m).
This is so pointless, that I don't even know why I'm writing this comment. COPV tanks are used in rockets only because they are much lighter than metallic tank - but what's the point of using them in cars? They are the main reason for catastrophic failures in rocket. There is little penetration resistance - one bump at wrong angle, and it might pop like a balloon. And that thing is holding 3 times the maximum pressure a consumer propane gas cylinder has.
The "Rocket version" will have another tank with twice the amount of compressed Nitrogen in it. In case, some parts of the driver has not already misted when the rear tank burst.
PS: This article states the pressure would be 100,00 PSI - which is wrong. COPV record is like 15000 PSI.
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u/hamfisting_my_thing 13h ago
They get real salty about people calling out that, while cool, this isn’t really innovative. It just put together a bunch of old tech in a headline-catching way that will literally never be sold to the public as demonstrated. It can’t be. The general public is barely able to operate regular motor vehicles rationally.
Then, using Reddit, they reply and say, “get off Reddit, kid”.
Man, I got owned. I’m still icing my injuries, actually.
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u/Mathfanforpresident 12h ago
Bro there was like 15 different posts in all the Indian subreddit in the span of like 10 minutes.
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u/hunguu 12h ago
It's so innovative I put down the required $50,000 deposit! I don't mind giving Elon a zero percent for about 5 or more years! 😆Jk
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u/AlarmingConfusion918 11h ago
It's actually so much worse than 50k. 50k is just for the base trim, 250k is for an upgraded trim, and the "rocket" trim (the one actually shown in videos) is invite-only and has an unknown deposit price.
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u/bryansj 13h ago
I guess it is innovative. Pointless technology for a car, but innovative in getting that video filmed.
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u/hurryveryslowly 13h ago
Modern day snake oil.
People are fucking stupid and forget too quickly, that's the moral here.
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u/Dodomando 13h ago edited 12h ago
The technology is not really innovative the Mcmurtry Spéirling hypercar also has the floor suction technology... as seen in this video
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u/Aarxnw 12h ago edited 12h ago
Which is actually vastly more useful than this bullshit.
Elon (or the people working for him) are masterminds of publicity, and there are certainly some talented and inspired engineers.
I must say though, this seems like a pretty simple leap from the cold gas thrusters used by SpaceX - So, neat party trick, hardly groundbreaking to adapt them for demo use in one of these vehicles. Absolutely no practical use though.
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u/DKlurifax 11h ago
Even earlier. Brabham BT46B is from 1978 and was banned from using formula one.
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u/KnightKal 13h ago
it is not a flying car, could be marketed as a safety device to avoid collisions, but that would be boring and wouldnt add another trillion dollars of hype to the stocks
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u/engineered_academic 13h ago
A safety device that is literally a body-vaporizing bomb? No thanks, homie.
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u/PotterOneHalf 12h ago
The idea that a car could launch into the air to avoid a collision instead of braking or evading to the side is nuts.
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u/mabus42 13h ago
I, for one, can't wait for the videos of Darwin Award contestants attempting to re-create the stunt from the reveal and then failing miserably.
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u/GMAN7007 13h ago
RCS thrusters have existed since 1957. Neat....absolutely. Innovative....not at all. Musk is incapable of creating his own ideas he needs to pay actual engineers and scientists to make any of this possible. His "inventions" are not possible without intervention from professionals who put in the actual work. I would give him actual credit if he had actual personal achievements.
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u/rat_penis 14h ago
Neat. Now please self deport.
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u/Paqza 13h ago
Elon should, yes.
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u/mattbladez 9h ago
As a Canadian I would ask to clarify this with “to South Africa”
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u/Teledildonic 8h ago
To Mars. We can load the new Roadster into a rocket to recreate his last stunt.
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u/reddittorbrigade 14h ago
The All-New Nazi Car.
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u/thalassicus 10h ago
Elon didn't show you a flying EV. He showed a 2 seat roadster that has an upgraded skin and compressed air shooting out the back, but otherwise is the same 2017 roadster he never shipped. Because he needs a win, he also demonstrated a wedge shaped cage full of compressed air cylinders and two axles and lied to you and told you it was an EV. 4k Ib EVs cannot flip around like that. 4k Ib EVs cannot create suction to hold upside down.
Had this been a rocket demo by some MIT grad students, yes very cool. But this will never be an EV. It will never ship with vertical thrust. It's vaporware.
Where has the critical thinking gone in this country? Because despite the obvious, Elon got his much needed win.
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u/its_happened_again 13h ago
I dont understand. What was the 50 year old technology that Tesla turned to?
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u/tramdog 13h ago
Compressed gas for thrust. They’re talking about movie stunt cars getting flipped over by hidden air canisters.
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u/Tucancancan 12h ago
Also this control tech has been around a while in aerospace. I'm not the first to think of this video either: https://youtu.be/KBMU6l6GsdM
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u/brayjr 6h ago
I think that's the whole point though. That tech is now in a car. Totally unnecessary. Totally cool as heck.
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u/cosmic_monsters_inc 12h ago
Cold gas thrusters are an idea about as new as vacuum trains and just as viable.
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u/archercc81 11h ago
If they had the roof off then it would expose it was nothing but an empty shell. That is why it had blacked out windows as well.
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u/cwm9 13h ago edited 13h ago
The article is so bad with regard to that.
They're talking about the McQ Cannon, which was a "cannon" welded to the bottom of stun car loaded with a 3-foot section of wooden log (think a piece of telephone pole) and given a black powder charge. You set the cannon off and the car leaps into the air doing a barrel roll or a spin or whatever you want. It's not the same tech at all, and a single use explosive stunt device intended to wreck a car in a visually stunning way is not anything like vectored air jets that allow a car to repeatedly jump, spin, hover, whatever. Invented by Hal Needham who broke his back and punctured a lung testing it. A car that uses wings to drive upside down is not the same thing as one that has fans that can hold it upside down on a ramp without moving.
Having said that, people still hate Elon. Cool tech like this - and yes, it is amazing - is not going to help save his tarnished image.
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u/maxlax02 12h ago
I thought the 50 year old tech they were talking about is the fan suctioning it to the road. That is literally just recycled tech from a couple old race cars and a more current supercar.
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u/worldspawn00 11h ago
I imagine the blades in the fan are going to be torn to shit by the debris/gravel that's all over public roadways. A race car is operating on pristine, smooth pavement, not the poorly maintained, pothole filled roads of New Jersey.
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u/ragzilla 13h ago
The car can’t repeatedly jump, spin, hover, or whatever. They have a single use of about 5 seconds of thrust followed by a 2 to 6 hour tethered refill time. Although they do hope to get the refill time down to 30 minutes.
It’s a gimmick to generate vital marketing. A successful one, but a gimmick nonetheless.
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u/Disastrous_Minute_56 12h ago
Don't forget what could happen if one of those carbon fiber tanks were to be compromised in an auto accident.
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u/Charming-Clue1987 12h ago
they have no intention of having these tanks in production vehicles. The whole point of this is to make people talk about it.
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u/ComprisingIgnorance 11h ago
I see it as a PR stunt to counteract some of the negative press about how much he's spending to bias midterms voting in favour of his companies across the US, for what its worth.
Anyone with any engineering understanding at all knows that what they demo'd is not sustainable w.r.t. energy usage, and that it's a gimmick.
With billionaires you need to understand what is driving their decisions. And this one = midterms influence/positive PR/"I'm a genius, honest, don't hate me!" stunt.
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u/TopAd3529 12h ago
And the refill takes... like 20+kw of energy.
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u/Appropriate-Divide64 12h ago
Let's not ignore the amount of heat that would generate too. And how incredibly dangerous the tank is.
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u/dxrey65 10h ago edited 10h ago
I don't see it as cool tech, it's basically a silly gimmick.
What I would respect, especially after all these years of roadster promises, is an actual car that can be built, that's affordable, that you can go out and buy and drive, and that looks cool. It seems like Musk is just so addled now he'll just keep coming out with these impractical over-the-horizon ideas that don't scale and nobody is going to be able to go out and buy. Maybe he's just lost it one way or another, or maybe he needs to keep a steady stream of wild promises to keep the hope going, which keeps the stock price elevated.
I'd respect him if he just built a decent car that competed with the stuff out of China; this was a chance for that but he just did his usual nonsense. It's not even a roadster.
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u/Niceromancer 12h ago
Cool tech?
No it's dumb.
It's cool as fuck on a stunt car. But I do not in any way trust a Tesla driver to be responsible with this. Remember all the videos of Tesla s drivers on the highway with the able headset on?
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u/Freakin_A 12h ago
This is not for street use. This is for demo purposes.
People aren’t gonna be out driving the streets with jump jets on their cars.
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u/BoopinSnoots24-7 13h ago
It's a nonsense headline. They're referring to Hollywood stunt cars that used compressed air to flip over. Certainly not remotely in the same ballpark as these vectored thrusters/acrobatics.
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u/PotCommitted13 13h ago
To be fair, saying this car can "fly" is like me jumping on a trampoline and saying I can "fly". No.....I can get real high in the air for 4 seconds with some assistance....
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u/unbalanced_checkbook 12h ago
I'm confused. The entire point of the term "roadster" is an open roof. That's literally the definition of the word.
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u/leadpoem 11h ago
Well actually, its original meaning was of a good horse that was capable of long distance travel. This means that Tesla should be making horses
You are 100% right. The term originated in the USA too.
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u/CherryLongjump1989 9h ago
The new tesla has a small battery to save weight and virtually no range, so that makes perfect sense. It's also not road legal. It's a track car with 20 minutes of driving time. And it's not going into production for two years, or maybe never.
What kind of a horse is that?
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u/BeyondRedline 13h ago
Hagerty has a decent video where they talk about the reality of this stunt car. It's compressed gas and has a small tank. This is in no way, shape, or form a "flying car."
Also: no, you'll never buy this.
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u/ryan30z 12h ago
I've seen comments on instagram about how it's a flying car. With a thrust to weight ratio or one or higher and using compressed air it sure as shit isn't going to be flying for long.
There's a reason jets capable of it don't hover in vtol for long. Short of using the afterburner nothing goes through fuel faster.
It's a sick demo but that's all it is. Legality aside it's completely useless. The entire point of this is so Elon can say he made a flying car.
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u/maddprof 8h ago
Somebody else said it and it's been stuck in my head since.
"Falling slower is not flying."
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u/MythOfDarkness 12h ago
You could also literally just watch the Tesla presentation to know this btw.
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u/MuteCook 12h ago
Con artists gonna con and the dummies will eat it up. I swear we are living Idiocracy right now.
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u/ChronX4 11h ago
They're pretty much using big sounding words to fool the masses.
Wouldn't be surprised if Elon paid off bot farms to argue with people who bring up how unlikely it is that this is a fully functional car being shown.
And the goal posts slide so people saying it's all smoke and mirrors look like crazy people who are pointing out the obvious cause it's meant to be a "demo" and not for sale.
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u/Spelunking-Uranus 11h ago
You are literally the first person I've seen actually say it. I can't believe how many people are lapping this obvious shit up.
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u/pygmymetal 13h ago
The whole point of the stunt is to pull attention away from Elon, trying to buy elections in Texas and threatening the Ukrainian people
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u/ptwonline 13h ago
No. The whole point of the stunt is to keep investors willing to pay 5-10x the value for shares of Elon's companies which he then leverages to make himself wealthier so he can do things like corrupt nations and elections and realize his own fascist dreams.
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u/SoreLoserOfDumbtown 13h ago
It can (and in my opinion is) both.
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u/grchelp2018 10h ago
No, the whole point of the stunt is to convince investors that merging tesla with spacex is a good thing.
Or its to distract from the documentary.
Or to pull attention to him as an Iron Man type.
There's so much stuff that always happening around Musk that you can always pull random shit out of your ass and it will be a viable reason.
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u/HolyRamenEmperor 9h ago
At this point the Tesla Roadster is basically the Star Citizen of electric cars... endless delays, perpetual feature creep, and absurd hyped-up tech demos to distract from the fact that they've taken millions in customer deposits over a decade with zero deliveries to show for it.
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u/Sooowasthinking 10h ago
It’s not going to be a feature at all it’s a stunt at best to get attention.
Would not buy a Tesla at all based on the poor build quality of the cybertruck it self.
He’s a grifter plain and simple.
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u/thirsty_for_chicken 10h ago
He promised the Cybertruck would float and you can't even drive it through a car wash or leave it out in the rain.
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u/Few_Advisor3536 8h ago
Or that time during the unveiling when he was advertising bullet proof glass.
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u/ThinkThankThonk 10h ago
Don't forget the part about him being a Nazi and actively fomenting racist violence around the world
There aren't that many worse people to give your money to
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u/Cartmansimon 9h ago
I think him doing a fucking Nazi salute on live tv would be a stronger reason to never buy anything from that POS.
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u/It_Is_Boogie 8h ago
I said this in another sub, but this is a gimmick to distract from the fact that Tesla is stagnant.
BMW is releasing a car with 400 mile range and Tesla comes out with thrusters.
Not to mention, when they announced the roadster, almost 10 years ago, they promised 600 miles of range.
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u/ReggieCorneus 9h ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/comments/1x73eq5/just_wow/
Top comment: "Reddit is SAD. This is one of the greatest technological advances in human history and is not even in first page."
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u/yueli93 6h ago
The Roadster demo is undeniably impressive, but as an actual product, what the fuck is the point?
Tesla is reportedly asking C$350,000 just to reserve the Thrust version, and that’s not even the purchase price. For less than that deposit, you could buy a whole-ass used Cessna 172, get your pilot’s licence, buy a brand-new Model 3 Performance, and still have roughly $100,000 left over. You’d have an airplane that actually flies somewhere and a performance EV you can actually drive on public roads.
Meanwhile, the invite-only Rocket is a single-seater that isn’t road legal, stuffed with high-pressure tanks, compressors, suction fans, and thrusters. No published curb weight, battery capacity, independently verified range, sustained flight endurance, or demonstrated performance with depleted tanks. And every time you use those thrusters, you’re consuming compressed air that takes time and battery energy to replenish.
I’d rather have a proper AWD electric sports car with usable storage, decent range, and repeatable performance than a multimillion-dollar amusement park ride.
And I think I’ve figured out the genius behind the 2028 production target: that’s probably when the original Foundation Series Cyberbeast owners will have finally clawed their way out of negative equity.
Uncle Elon is thoughtfully giving them a shiny new toy so they can dive straight back underwater.
Truly revolutionary. Not only has Tesla reinvented the flying car, it’s also pioneered the financially submersible one.
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u/HandofWinter 5h ago
You're writing this post in a world where the €4 million Bugatti Bolide was sold out long before the first unit was available.
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u/yueli93 5h ago
The Bolide is actually a great example of my point.
Someone spending €4 million on a Bugatti is buying into an established ecosystem of engineering, servicing, collectors, and restoration specialists. A wealthy enthusiast could conceivably own a Veyron, Chiron, and Bolide and still enjoy all three decades from now.
Now imagine a Tesla collector with an original Roadster and the new flying Roadster twenty years down the line. The original might still be drivable, while the supposedly revolutionary one could be a multimillion-dollar paperweight because nobody manufactures or certifies its proprietary high-pressure tanks anymore.
And that’s before we even discuss the flying version’s operational limitations, external refilling requirements, or the absence of published long-term maintenance specifications.
The Bolide selling out proves that wealthy people will buy an expensive, purpose-built track car from Bugatti. It doesn’t prove they’ll buy literally any exotic contraption regardless of its ownership experience.
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u/so_unfortunately_yt 9h ago
That car is completely hollow. This is such bullshit I can’t believe people are giving it air.
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u/Appropriate-Divide64 12h ago
More BS to scam investors. This can never be put in the road because driving around with a 10,000 psi pressure bomb is dangerous as hell. Those tanks don't just leak like a tyre with a hiss, the slightest damage would cause an insane explosion.
That's before you even get into the thermal problems of conpressing and releasing that gas.
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u/schooli00 11h ago
The demo was pure movie magic. The car flying through the air was as real as Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
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u/Sierra11755 5h ago
I thought it was meant to be a demo for precision control thrusters on a satellite or something and just used a Tesla because they could.
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u/BananaPalmer 8h ago
The real story here is Musk trying to backdoor his unprofitable ass into the S&P 500 by merging SpaceX and Tesla, and stealing everyone's retirement.
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u/Bleakwind 11h ago
This feels like a prop piece for a pump and dump for spacex Tesla merger…
Why would any of these features used? Even in a race coarse setting..
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u/Soft-Bad-7127 12h ago
I loved how they used two different car models to demonstrate two different 3-second leaps. The first one had a vacuum suction and then a air compressor to land. The second one had a air compressor to jump. A single car could not do both stunts because it can't contain the technology in a single vehicle for two stunts.
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u/AlarmingConfusion918 10h ago
another reason is that the car cannot contain enough energy to do both stunts
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u/SonicDethmonkey 8h ago
Because the tanks only have enough volume for one stunt. lol Dumbest “product” ever.
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u/RevFit_JamesH 9h ago
Different spec options. Diversified income stream. Genius!!! …right?
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u/radedward76 6h ago
It's a circus act and anyone who thinks this "feature" will make it into production... is sadly a larger proportion of the population than I would like.
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u/Da_Stable_Genius 13h ago
The presentation reminded me of a ride at Disney. It's hilarious that people fall for these gimmicks. Distraction complete I guess.
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u/cranktheguy 13h ago
People actually put down payments on this car like a decade ago. Somehow he's still stringing these people along.
We'll get this car the same year people land on Mars.
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u/fllannell 11h ago
they combined stunt car / compressed air jet pack technology with a half loopdeloop car stunt (a la hotwheels/xgames). How much company engineering resources from spacex went into this skunkworks demo??
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u/SirLoinsALot03 13h ago
Meanwhile, Porsche debuted a real sports car yesterday that has no gimmicks and will actually be produced one day.
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u/cr0ft 6h ago
The Bugatti vehicles can reach 400 km/h, and in order to do that they needed to have custom tires manufactured that have a prayer of handling that. Even then, someone doing 400 in a Bugatti is taking their life in their hands, a tire failure and they're dead.
And here comes the king of the malignant narcissists, Elon Musk, and claims 600+ kph. Quite aside from the fact that there are no roads for that, there are probably also no tires for that.
And the Bugatti will drain a huge fuel tank in literally 9 minutes to push through the air at 400km/h - most of the 1000+ horsepower is needed to get from 300-400, not 0-300.
Just idiot fantasies from Musk as usual. The Cybertruck, for instance, is the most idiotic piece of shit ever made on four wheels; this will also be idiotic.
All they had to do was make a super sporty Tesla that looked good and it would have been a fun toy for the 0.01% of the worst exploiters of humanity, but no, it had to have fucking thrusters.
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u/jellyrolls 9h ago
I don't care about the jets; that shit will never fly (pun intended). I also don't care about the track-focused performance they say this has. Why not debut it on a track? Put it up against a Mcmurtry Spéirling and prove it.
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u/Excitium 13h ago
Ol' Muskrat needs another cash infusion cause his companies' financials are probably not looking too hot after the twitter purchase so he's back trying to sell more vapourware.
The sad part? It's probably gonna work and get people with more money than sense to buy his overinflated stocks...
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u/TransportationTrick9 12h ago
Didnt he show off Tesla's plans this time last year and it was all around robotaxi and buses etc. What happened d there?
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u/Neat-Acanthaceae2755 10h ago
I'm more impressed that the car managed to drive up that ramp so slowly
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u/BananaPalmer 8h ago
It's neat, but using fans to create vacuum downforce is nothing new
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u/DrManhattansTaint 2h ago
The author of this article couldn’t even be bothered to actually write it. It’s written by AI.
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u/NegativeSemicolon 13h ago
The correct interpretation. Still a cool stunt, just not a lot of real world application.
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u/CircumspectCapybara 14h ago edited 13h ago
Obviously it's not DOT street legal, and like a lot of Musk's other scattered passion projects, I wonder how many of these will actually reach serial production.
But have to admit it's a cool piece of tech, even if it's totally impractical and just for silly stunts
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u/CanIhazCooKIenOw 13h ago
> Obviously it's not DOT street legal, and I wonder how many of these will actually reach serial production.
It's amazing how someone can still think that this has any remote possibility of becoming anything serious.
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u/-Nocx- 13h ago
Surely people are onto the bit by now?
It’s like the “car subways” I don’t think Elon or his companies are ever taking these (specific) ridiculously stupid ideas seriously, it is just something to get people talking.
I don’t know why they need the occasional reach when they’re already working on things that are unbelievably revolutionary (like their reusable rockets, or their satellite mesh), but it’s clear that not every idea they advertise is intended to be taken seriously.
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u/MonkeyStealsPeach 14h ago
It's just a distraction from him being a fascist piece of garbage trying to put his thumb on American elections
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u/webternet 13h ago
Automakers make prototypes all the time lol engineers love doing that shit
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u/Huge_Campaign2205 14h ago
Trying? He already has put his hands in MULTIPLE elections, bring back the cold era way of dealing with traitors.
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u/dog_hair_everywhere 12h ago
I feel like I’m stating the obvious but there’s no way the car in that video weighs 3800 lbs. and there’s no way the compressed air system was processing that jump in real time.
it looks to me like they stuck the attitude adjustment system from a space X rocket on a model and relentlessly programmed them to do those two moves… oh well I’ll just keep watching Hoonigan videos since ya know… they actually have a driver.
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u/thatirishguyyyyy 9h ago
I legitimately laughed when I saw the video. He is so undeniably desperate at this point to make people like him and his products.
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u/fatal-horse-kick 10h ago edited 10h ago
wtf is ts? Seriously? A stunt for share spikes? I would love to see them roll this out in America. Chaos “git outta ma way greenhorn! - Yee haw!”
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u/drbeeper 11h ago
How is it even possible that the Muskbots are even dumber than the average MAGAt?
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u/crunkful06 14h ago
Is this Ai? I don’t see how this works. The vacuum system, yeah maybe, it has proven technically but the jets?
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u/MobileVortex 13h ago
It's super compressed air. No real fuel. The vacuum system is already on other supercars.
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u/Srnkanator 13h ago
The only one that can do this is the McMurty Spierling and it's not street legal.
The GM T50 has a rear fan, but it can't drive inverted.
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u/crunkful06 13h ago
That’s a lot of force to overcome. The car is very heavy and not to mention overcoming velocity vectoring
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u/DiZ1992 13h ago
It's not heavy though, because it's not a standard car. It's probably just the frame gutted out of that, maybe just a foam cutout or something.
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u/jhaluska 12h ago
I doubt it even uses the same frame. I suspect it's a Nascar-like tube frame with some plastic body panels. The only thing it likely shares with the production vehicle is the shape.
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u/crunkful06 13h ago
That makes sense and I’m satisfied with that
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u/trowawayatwork 13h ago
also a battery for 10 mins drive. the weight of the battery alone would make it infeasible
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u/CautiousArachnidz 13h ago
With these gas prices, driving an elephant seems more feasible as the days go on.
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u/ExitMusic_ 13h ago
If you pause the demo you can see the car is basically just the frame and shell
This was smoke and mirrors. No way this ends up getting mass produced and delivered on.
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u/Ill_Candle_9462 13h ago
The thing is probably a foam and metal frame RC car with zero practical components other than what is needed for this pump stunt.
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u/crunkful06 13h ago
This makes sense actually. I was just saying in another comment that it’s a lot of weight to overcome with compressed air
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u/invisiblewar 11h ago
It was a stunt to get people to watch. It was undeniably cool. Yeah it was a stunt but it was really cool tech.
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u/DoctorsAdvocate 12h ago
Idk why they didn’t just release the old one without worrying about 1.8 0-60. Could have had a good looking sports car ev.
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u/devildog2067 12h ago
This is clearly just a pretext to claim that Tesla and SpaceX are related, overlapping businesses and should merge. Why is that not obvious to literally everyone?
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u/elmatador12 11h ago edited 9h ago
I’ll say it again, it is not a coincidence he announced this the day before his documentary comes out. The one that he tried so desperately to stop.
He’s taken over the news cycle with this flying car so his documentary doesn’t make much news. And so far it’s working like a charm for him.
Edit: For those interested it’s a theatrical release so you need to check your local theaters to see it. It’s also 4 hours long…
Edit 2: It’s simply called MUSK if you are searching for it.