Overview
- Tesla presented the new Roadster at a SpaceX test site near Waco, Texas, on October 15–16 in a live demo that sent the car up a ramp, produced an aerial roll, activated onboard cold‑gas thrusters and landed the vehicle intact.
- The company immediately opened online reservations with large deposits reported at $50,000 for a "Performance" model and $250,000 for a "Thrust" model while withholding a final retail price and saying production is planned to begin in 2028.
- Tesla and Elon Musk described the car as fitted with roughly ten SpaceX‑style thruster nozzles and claimed performance such as 0–97 km/h in under one second and a top speed near 370 km/h, but those figures and technical details have not been independently verified.
- Tesla acknowledged the Roadster is not homologated for public roads and experts note overlapping legal and safety questions that involve vehicle regulators and aviation authorities after the thruster demonstration.
- The reveal revives long‑running doubts about Tesla timetables and safety oversight and creates new regulatory and environmental issues to watch, including FAA rulings, homologation testing and publication of independent performance and safety data.