Overview
- Tesla showed a Roadster prototype that on Thursday drove up a curved ramp, adhered to the surface with a suction system, detached, executed an aerial roll and landed back on its wheels.
- The car uses up to ten cold‑gas thrusters fed from high‑pressure compressed‑gas tanks developed with SpaceX engineers and an active underbody fan to add downforce and brief vertical lift.
- Tesla reported a measured sprint of 0–60 mph in 0.81 seconds during the demo and set sub‑one‑second targets for production Thrust and Rocket trims but offered no independent verification of those claims.
- The company listed three variants—Performance, Thrust and an invitation‑only Rocket model with full thruster arrays—opened reservations with large upfront deposits and set a 2028 production target while withholding final pricing and production volumes.
- Regulators and safety experts flagged unresolved issues: Tesla says flight functions are not allowed on public roads, CEO Elon Musk warned the car is “not necessarily optimized for safety,” and the use of carbon‑fiber overwrapped pressure vessels raises certification and operational questions.