Tesla showed its next-generation Roadster at a livestreamed event on Thursday night, October 15, and the car drove up a curved ramp, launched off the end, flipped in the air and landed on the pavement. The show was held outdoors near Waco, Texas, at a SpaceX test site in McGregor. After the landing, Elon Musk said, “Well, it worked.” This is a recap of the demo, not independent testing.
What the demo showed
On the ramp, a fan system under the car held it to the surface until it was upside down, and cold-gas thrusters then launched it off the end. In a second run, the car went over a lineup of Tesla vehicles that included a Cybertruck and a Semi, and it landed on the far side. Accounts describe that run as a hover, a launch or a kickflip. A 0 to 60 mph run was also shown, and the figure given ranges from about 0.81 seconds to under one second depending on the account.
What Tesla claims
Tesla says the thruster system produces four to five times the force the tires can. Its vehicle engineering chief, Lars Moravy, said Tesla borrowed some technology from SpaceX for the thrusters and described a fan system that can pull up to 2 Gs. Musk called the car the best of the last of the human-driven cars, and he joked that it is not necessarily a safety-first car.
What is not proven
A staged demo does not show range, cost, repeatability or safety, and the accounts we read include no test data. The 0 to 60 figures are Tesla’s own. One account says Tesla states the car is not approved for public roads, while Musk said, “This will be the actual car that’s on the roads.” For the three versions and their claimed numbers, see Tesla Roadster Has Three Trims: Performance, Thrust and Rocket.
Our take: this was a real stunt, and the controlled landing is the part that stands out. But a demo is not a product. The open questions are the same as before the show: a final price, a version that can be driven on a road and a delivery date customers can count on. We covered the run-up in Tesla Sets Roadster Unveil for Thursday Night After Weather Delay.
