Tesla's Flying Sports Car Succeeds, Leaping Over Five Vehicles

[Financial News] Tesla unveiled the new “Roadster,” a flying sports car it had been promising since last year.
On the 15th (local time), Tesla demonstrated the two-seat Roadster, fitted with gas thrusters, at a SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas, with CEO Elon Musk, chief designer Franz von Holzhausen and others in attendance. The demonstration was a complete success, without any mistakes or failures.
During the demonstration, the Roadster climbed about halfway up a circular track that rose into the air like a roller coaster, then used its thrusters to land safely on the ground while upside down.
In the next demonstration, it charged toward a lineup of five vehicles, including a large truck, then blasted gas, leapt over them and landed, performing a stunt.
Musk said, “We call that a ‘kickflip,’” and declared, “Flying cars are real.”
He said, “My friend Peter Thiel (the founder of Palantir) once said, ‘People used to say that when the future came, there would be flying cars, but all we got was 140 characters on X, the social media platform.’ That’s no longer the case.”
Speaking about the Roadster, Musk explained, “This car has attitude-control thrusters and a main rear thruster, so it can fly like a rocket.”
He added, “Tesla and SpaceX engineers worked closely together to create something better than a James Bond car—something never seen in any movie.”
He also stressed that the car had a suction system powerful enough to suspend it upside down in the air, allowing it to corner while gripping the ground tightly, as if defying the laws of physics. He added, however, that he did not know whether a Roadster with these capabilities could legally be driven on every road.


The Roadster clocked 0.81 seconds in the zero-to-60 test, going from a standstill to 60 miles per hour (about 97 km/h), meeting the sub-one-second target CEO Musk had previously set.
Musk predicted that its top speed would be at least 230 miles per hour (about 370 km/h) and that it could eventually reach Mach 0.5 or higher—half the speed of sound.
Tesla also showed the car raising a wing (spoiler) at the rear, like a race car, transforming into a configuration suited for high-speed driving.
For safety, the Roadster demonstration was conducted autonomously, with no driver on board. The production Roadster will be a human-driven car. Musk said, “In the long term, this will be the only manually driven vehicle Tesla makes.”
Musk said the Roadster would enter mass production starting in 2028.
Spectators invited by Tesla were also at the Roadster demonstration.
Musk explained, “We need an audience to prove that this demonstration isn’t artificial intelligence (AI) or superintelligence (SI).”


The Roadster demonstration, which Musk had said last year would take place “within the year,” was held today after being postponed several times.
Originally, the Roadster was Tesla’s first product to go on sale, in 2008, and the name of the world’s first electric sports car. CEO Musk has repeatedly expressed his fondness for it.
In 2018, when SpaceX launched a rocket, Musk also sent into space the Roadster he had driven himself. The vehicle is currently orbiting the sun.
However, Musk has also faced criticism over the indefinite delay in the planned release of the new Roadster, developed as a “flying car.”
Tesla first unveiled the new Roadster in 2017 and began taking orders with a $50,000 reservation deposit, but nine years later it has still not gone on sale.

[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Affairs Correspondent Reporter