YHK - yet another hacker news clone

Tesla Roadster

282 points shekhar101 2 hours ago 314 comments

delichon 2 hours ago | parent

The livestream has the stunts: https://x.com/Tesla/status/2110788059008819215

charlesfries 2 hours ago | parent

What is the practical use case of this? https://x.com/JehovaTrades/status/2110906028971938252

morkalork 2 hours ago | parent

To play Spy Hunter irl?

iugtmkbdfil834 2 hours ago | parent

You were never stuck in traffic I take it:D Insurance will be a bitch, but people will move out of your way.

cjbgkagh 2 hours ago | parent

Neat, but that car has to be practically empty. It appears to have very low inertia.

By rough estimate, using hydroxide jet packs as a reference, I’d say they got it down to about 600kg.

td521534f12 2 hours ago | parent

To brag to other, lesser billionaires.

phoghed 1 hour ago | parent

Uhh to be sick af?

mrheosuper 1 hour ago | parent

WTF, that the most cartoonist thing i've seen today. Does it really have to do the flip ?

jopython 1 hour ago | parent

yes

ls612 1 hour ago | parent

To show off? Like whatever you think of it the market for supercars is rich men who want to show off so Tesla is playing in that market.

ndriscoll 1 hour ago | parent

Literally dozens of scenarios have been documented. e.g. https://youtube.com/watch?v=f1B21Nd9oZ4&t=1000s

abrookewood 13 minutes ago | parent

Nice ;)

soderfoo 46 minutes ago | parent

Americans will do anything to avoid roundabouts.

B1FF_PSUVM 2 hours ago | parent

Some smart cookies put up a scam video topping Google searches for the announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5lmBq00utE

AI Elon pressure selling "act decisively, double your money" by transferring crypto to some wallet and getting 2x back - yeah, right

(PS Google shut it down)

accountrequired 2 hours ago | parent

Cool!!! Whoever thinks this is *not cool* please, leave your cool card at the door

flowerlad 35 minutes ago | parent

Cool, but not realistic. This is a prototype, if you have enough money you can build a prototype car that does just about anything. When the car starts shipping the "cool" features will be missing.

ralusek 18 minutes ago | parent

This is a cool prototype, though

archagon 6 minutes ago | parent

I think it's not cool to be excited about vapid shit like this after the CEO took a chainsaw to USAID and directly caused hundreds of thousands of deaths through starvation and lack of medical care.

silisili 1 hour ago | parent

This is something straight out of Rocket League. Completely impractical, but awesome at the same time.

abrookewood 14 minutes ago | parent

Fast forward to 11:15 to see the tricks.

moralestapia 2 hours ago | parent

Wow, this might be the most phenomenal tech demo I've ever watched.

This is just amazing, congrats to everyone who worked on this.

From an engineering pov, it must be the highlight of someone's life and a massive amount of fun to be able to work on a product like this.

dumberquestions 2 hours ago | parent

Who writes like this?

ThalesX 2 hours ago | parent

Pretty big nothingburger. Production starts 2028 and honestly, the taunted feature... it's not a flying car, it's a jumping car. Do people actually want this for themselves? I'd wager the valuation would go down after this presentation.

iugtmkbdfil834 2 hours ago | parent

I never thought I would say this, but.. have you been like.. born 70 or something?

ThalesX 1 hour ago | parent

Late 80's

kingstnap 1 hour ago | parent

Bro the car literally jumped over a semi like its the TF2 soldier. Nothingburger???

ThalesX 1 hour ago | parent

OK sure. I don't have a lot of use cases in my day to day commute that would be better handled by this jumping over a semi like it's the TF2 soldier, hence, a big nothingburger.

zbrozek 2 hours ago | parent

Can this be scaled down to a Roomba? Then it would both be more useful at picking stuff up off the floor, and able to recover from falling down the stairs.

al_borland 42 minutes ago | parent

All the dust around it on the floor would end up airborne again.

zbrozek 30 minutes ago | parent

That's OK if it's just to save itself from dying in the event of a fall down the stairs. Should be infrequent!

still-learning 2 hours ago | parent

Genuinely impressed, incredible demo

Aeolun 2 hours ago | parent

At least this one doesn't look horrible. I can't see myself buying it, but I don't feel like I want to gag either.

okdood64 2 hours ago | parent

Okay that's one of the coolest things I've seen in a while since the rockets landing.

Car looks half decent too.

esperent 2 hours ago | parent

> Car looks half decent too

To me it looks like a mashup of a Ferrari and a Cybertruck. That's not a good thing.

eclipticplane 1 hour ago | parent

Same; there are stylish super cars... this again looks like a 5 year old kid drawing like the Cybertruck does.

vladdoster 2 hours ago | parent

aka a $245,000 loan to tesla with no interest for 10 years

treesknees 2 hours ago | parent

The one that doesn’t fly is only a $45,000 loan

m463 21 minutes ago | parent

I think it is $50,000 to reserve.

pseudosavant 1 hour ago | parent

They first started taking deposits on the Roadster 9 years ago in 2017 with a 2020 production date. It’ll be shocking if they ever sell this car they showed today. If they do, it’ll be many years late, not fly, and cost twice what they are saying. Just like the CyberTruck.

Rebelgecko 2 hours ago | parent

Is the copy grok's writing style? It feels inhuman but still more readable than Opus

combobyte 2 hours ago | parent

> Our multi-mode fan and ground sealing system acts as a downforce generator, pulling air out from beneath the vehicle. This provides enough suction to hold the vehicle upside down, even when stationary.

Bullshit, no it can't.

> Advanced cold-gas thrusters use all-electric actuators to offer precise thrust, completing micro adjustments within a fraction of a second. This helps stabilize the vehicle in flight.

In flight? What? Did I miss the joke, or what? It's a fucking car... The image even shows it hovering off the ground. How is this not blatant false advertising?

ETA: okay, skimmed some of the livestream. These is absolutely no way that any of these features will ever be part of a production model. People get serious whiplash injuries just from being rear-ended at low speed. What do they think is going to happen to the occupant when they tell their car to jump over a semi and do a fucking barrel roll? Seriously, what are we doing here?

blobbers 2 hours ago | parent

It's supposed to be funny. Or it's not? Really not sure.

teddy__d 2 hours ago | parent

Watch the livestream

td521534f12 2 hours ago | parent

This isn't even the first car to demo holding and driving upside down using a ground effect fan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6LYcgaQ46c

rjsw 2 hours ago | parent

There is another car [1] with a fan to improve downforce.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Murray_Automotive_T.50

gizajob 1 hour ago | parent

Amazing such instant expertise.

Watch the video - the car jumps into the air. Not exactly flight or what we’d consider a flying car, but it’s careering through the air off the ground.

foobazgt 1 hour ago | parent

> Bullshit, no it can't

I mean, this isn't crazy. In fact, it's already been done. Ever heard of McMurtry? (https://mcmurtry.com/). They're notorious for exactly this - using fans to provide extreme downforce (urr... upforce if you're hanging upside down?).

> In flight?

Did you see the stunt where it literally flew over vehicles? I mean, maybe it's a bit closer to a controlled super-leap like the original Superman, but... yeah, my personal reaction to that was more "holy shit" than "well, that's not flying".

kulahan 1 hour ago | parent

If you scroll down on the page, it shows that the "rocket edition" is invite-only. Probably gonna sell it to a few friends in hopes that the 3-5 they make sell for millions down the road, so to speak.

gcanyon 1 hour ago | parent

>> Our multi-mode fan and ground sealing system acts as a downforce generator, pulling air out from beneath the vehicle. This provides enough suction to hold the vehicle upside down, even when stationary.

> Bullshit, no it can't.

A proof of concept already exists:

https://mcmurtry.com/upside-down-driving/

iugtmkbdfil834 2 hours ago | parent

Been a while since I was impressed with a tech presentation. I was waiting for a clear case of AI assisted movement ( though I personally expected to see it for the first time in a military chopper ).

**

Side note, as I was looking for the right stream, youtube gave me a link to a different deep fake 'Musk' stream where he extolled virtues of sending him money ( https://roadster-tesla.com/#participate ). Everything has changed man. I am sure the scammer actually got some people.

afavour 2 hours ago | parent

Looks like a sensible turning down of the Cybertruck aesthetic into something that looks good.

That said, the production issues with the Cybertruck mean you’d be a fool to reserve one of these. Let others do it, find out how late it arrives, what glued panels fall off at speed and wait for the inevitable recalls. Tesla has torched their engineering reputation lately and this page is making a lot of promises about revolutionary things.

combobyte 2 hours ago | parent

> glued panels fall off at speed

Given some of the tauted 'features' of this thing, I'd be more concerned about it blowing up in my driveway.

sippingabonedry 2 hours ago | parent

Hardly a concern when you can't afford one.

gopalv 2 hours ago | parent

> what glued panels fall off

The Lotus Elise was famously glued together instead of welds. The original Roadster also had the same innards.

This is clearly not a car for someone who wants to go from A to B, but a lot of Tesla components gets binned together for the next iteration of the cheaper car because they always order too many of them.

Oddly enough this makes their cheaper cars more reliable than the expensive ones (think about the Audis right when Ferdinand Piech took over Lamborgini).

majormajor 1 hour ago | parent

> Oddly enough this makes their cheaper cars more reliable than the expensive ones

That's pretty standard. An M3 has long pushed the tolerances of things in the engine more than a base-model 3 series. An S-class has more whiz-bang-hope-it-still-works-in-ten-years stuff than a C-class. A Lexus has more going on than a boring base Corolla.

rgbrenner 1 hour ago | parent

at least the CyberTruck shipped.

9 years since the announcement of Roadster v2, people who paid 50k deposits are still waiting.

Time to up the promises, and ask for more $50k deposits for v3!

nradov 1 hour ago | parent

This type of vehicle isn't intended to drive at speed, at least not very far. It's targeted at collectors who will park it in a garage with their other supercars. It's a status symbol with wheels, not transportation or even a toy for track days. (And I don't mean that as a criticism, there's nothing wrong with wealthy people buying collectibles.)

luqtas 1 hour ago | parent

> (And I don't mean that as a criticism, there's nothing wrong with wealthy people buying collectibles.)

there's a whole lot of systemic issues with wealthy people buying low-poly cars to their collection.

m463 38 minutes ago | parent

Don't make fun of the Delorean. Or The Thing.

alasdair_ 1 hour ago | parent

It’s not premium enough for collectors. I could see plenty of tech people buying one as a daily driver that they also take to the track though.

doginasuit 1 hour ago | parent

That was my first thought, Cybertruck: The Car. But then it drove up a wall and stopped on the ceiling and flew down. That was awesome. I'm sure it will be a nightmare to own.

jbm 1 hour ago | parent

Everyone is talking about the Cybertruck, but both the 3 and the Y have plenty of engineering problems as well. I believe both cars are listed as below-average reliability by CR.

Worse, there are no 3rd parties producing cheaper suspension parts, so your old Model 3 is going to have to spend 2000-3000$ on an yearly basis until you get sick of fixing the suspension. Tesla claims to have fixed the issue on newer models (and apparently they did a lot of work on the suspension), but they don't really take responsibility for their old cars so I doubt they will take responsibility when their design causes problems for you.

I do enjoy driving my 2019 SR+ Model 3, but I hate when people do the whole "Well on first principles, EVs have less parts so they are more reliable..." thing. My Toyota Sienna has been far more reliable than the Model 3, despite having many, many more parts.

motionlessveloc 1 hour ago | parent

Early Model 3/Ys built in the US were unreliable. The ones built in Shanghai, though, are excellent. Berlin is somewhere in the middle.

FWIW, I'm into my fourth year of (Chinese-built) Model 3 ownership and it's been rock solid, the only services so far were to replace the air filter and wipers.

Waterluvian 1 minute ago | parent

Kind of a silly question but I want to be sure I’m piecing together a fair picture: both of those are five minute tasks you do yourself outside the auto parts store / driveway, right?

kibwen 38 minutes ago | parent

> My Toyota Sienna has been far more reliable than the Model 3, despite having many, many more parts.

This is less about EVs vs ICEs and more about Toyota's engineering quality vs Tesla's engineering quality, which is hovering somewhere in the vicinity of Homer Simpson's barbecue pit.

m463 39 minutes ago | parent

I liked the rounded one lots better:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/NextGenT...

m463 16 minutes ago | parent

I think the front view reminds me of the old lamborghini countach.

https://digitalassets.tesla.com/tesla-contents/image/upload/...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Lamborgh...

dataking 2 hours ago | parent

Rocket-inspired design hints at desire to merge Tesla and SpaceX?

aresant 2 hours ago | parent

This was 100% precursor to the absorption of Tesla into SpaceX and I’m here for it

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/tesla-spac...

hiitsmyaccount 2 hours ago | parent

Yes, let's combine Twitter, an AI company, and a space company with a solar company, car company, battery company, and robotics company, so that we can have one huge valuation that can't be possibly delivered upon and losses will be absorbed for a short period. What could go wrong?

fnordpiglet 2 hours ago | parent

It would almost be as big a monstrosity as Amazon

gizajob 1 hour ago | parent

Japanese companies manage fine doing this kind of thing.

AlotOfReading 1 hour ago | parent

What about Tesla's management style would you call Japanese?

gizajob 1 hour ago | parent

I’m highlighting that companies can and do have all kinds of departments doing seemingly unrelated things if they want to.

AlotOfReading 50 minutes ago | parent

I'm pointing out that Japanese companies can do that because they're organized and managed like Japanese companies. Tesla is not, and in fact lacks pretty much all the organizing characteristics and long term planning that enables keiretsu to function.

merekmob 8 minutes ago | parent

Kamikaze

Gigachad 1 hour ago | parent

Do they have a gigantic tumor like twitter and Space AI slapped on the side? If all of the products were profitable it would work.

gizajob 1 hour ago | parent

I don’t have time to look up whatever Masayoshi Son has wasted a few billion dollars on today, but yes kinda.

wnmurphy 45 minutes ago | parent

I'm glad someone else gets it.

killbot5000 1 hour ago | parent

Tesla-Yutani

burnerRhodov3 1 hour ago | parent

but... All elon companies. More valuable bundled, because all the elon lovers don't have to pick where they throw their tithes. I'd love it even more if they throw in a tunnel construction and a human brain implant company in the mix while they are at it.

wnmurphy 53 minutes ago | parent

This would be a horrible deal for Tesla investors.

Long-term investors would lose about 40% of their investment to subsidize the inflated valuation of X (bought by xAI), the inflated valuation of xAI (bought by SpaceX), and SpaceX (whose valuation is based on the assumption that demand for inference is effectively unlimited, and that everyone will prefer hardware in space over Earth).

The valuation of both companies was inflated prior to acquisition, and Tesla shareholders will be asked to dilute their investment by absorbing that cumulative inflation.

Not even to mention that Musk would have exclusive control over the entire conglomerate, with not even the pretense of a Board to check his power.

When even Steven Mark Ryan is like "let's pump the breaks a little bit," you know it's bad.

t1234s 2 hours ago | parent

I cant wait to see what type of batshit crazy motorsport series they invent for these.

zhangchioulin 2 hours ago | parent

Very COOL, I like this Roadster retro style

gtirloni 2 hours ago | parent

> It challenges the limits of design, engineering and physics to deliver an expertly crafted extra-terrestrial vehicle.

closed tab. thanks.

johnnyApplePRNG 2 hours ago | parent

Still with the deadly door-handles that first responders can't open, I see.

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-tesla-dangerous-door...

kcb 2 hours ago | parent

Yea, i was going to reserve one of these sub 1 sec 0-60 vehicles with rocket motors and suction fans, but then I didnt because of the ergonomics of the door handle design.

phyzome 1 hour ago | parent

"Ergonomics" is an interesting phrase to use for "critical safety issue".

But yeah, that's not the part of the vehicle that's gong to kill its first victim.

sippingabonedry 1 hour ago | parent

If you watched the video, which you didn't, you'd know it appears to have a traditional door latch with recessed handles.

phyzix5761 2 hours ago | parent

It can fly? Wow! What a time to be alive!

glimshe 2 hours ago | parent

I could have used that when leaving Costco last Saturday.

m463 34 minutes ago | parent

Can't help but think of the super-large size toilet paper pack getting sucked into the fans...

NDlurker 2 hours ago | parent

"Tony Hawk would be called, we call that the kickflip."

Uh what? Rodney Mullen invented the kickflip

Reminds me of this https://youtu.be/LC97wdQOmfI

niwtsol 1 hour ago | parent

Yes, Rodney Mullen invented the kickflip (and damn near every other skate trick), but the reference here comes from a time when Tony Hawk would drive around and yell "do a kickflip" at skaters, if they did a kickflip he would sometimes give them a signed board or other things. Example video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob0dI05Xz8s - it became a thing for a little where people would yell "do a kickflip" at skaters they saw on the street.

NDlurker 1 hour ago | parent

Oh yeah, I forgot about the origin of that meme.

chirau 2 hours ago | parent

So Elon's entities are really using SI instead of AI? Interesting. Or was he the one who actually suggested the name change to POTUS?

gizajob 2 hours ago | parent

Super

King-Aaron 2 hours ago | parent

I hate Tesla for their politics, broken promises, and all the drama that we are all aware and tired of hearing about. That being said, that was the coolest damn thing I've ever seen a car do.

I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind that it'll never make production like this, but what I see as being demonstrated is a suborbital lander/off-world ground transport concept that can work in low gravity environments etc. This will aid autonomous delivery vehicles etc to be dropped from low orbit and find their own landing sites, and then drive to location.

I wonder how many maimed kerbals are stranded around the space X facility while testing this.

j4k0bfr 1 hour ago | parent

Very cool stuff but all the "extra-terrestrial" stuff is complete bunk. This thing wouldn't survive Max-Q, let alone any kind of landing that isn't on a clean slab of concrete. It's a cool rich person toy, no other notes.

King-Aaron 1 hour ago | parent

You miss my point. They're demonstrating a landing system, it's just wrapped up in a car to fool the idiots that are going to pre-purchase it again so they can use that money to build more space X technology.

The car is just a façade.

Edit: And to expand on this. Owners of GM T.50' say they can't use the ground effect fan anywhere in public due to the debris it picks up and throws, and are ineffective on anything but near perfect roads. So that's not impressive to me. And the jet boosters are also ridiculous, there is not real-world application where you could use them outside of completely closed environments with no one nearby. It's a huge investment into reaction thrusters for a car that would never, ever be used - unless it was to demonstrate thruster technology for another reason.

i.e. Space X.

joquarky 47 minutes ago | parent

What is this wonderful "autonomous delivery vehicle" capable of delivering?

Also, assuming the delivery vehicle is destroyed at the end of each "delivery", what will it cost?

King-Aaron 24 minutes ago | parent

...why would you assume it would be destroyed? What even is your point?

I think you are on an entirely different page.

gonzalohm 2 hours ago | parent

What's up with wheels not being round anymore? How is that supposed to work? I understand it for Formula 1, but for real world driving, it doesn't make any sense

nhinck2 2 hours ago | parent

Good on Elon for putting out a car that embodies his best trait, sucking as hard as possible.

gizajob 2 hours ago | parent

It also blows.

jjordan 34 minutes ago | parent

I wish all the Elon haters put as much effort into making their comments as humorous as yours. Well done.

ambicapter 2 hours ago | parent

Is this a broken link for anyone else?

ijustlovemath 2 hours ago | parent

Kind of disturbing how hard he's leaning into the futurism aesthetic here, given its history.

pastel8739 1 hour ago | parent

Tesla has been doing this for a while, having all their promo shots at night etc. The terafab announcement stuff has an especially dystopian vibe

phyzome 1 hour ago | parent

I mean, he also did a straight-up Nazi salute. We already know the guy is a fascist.

kwisatzh 2 hours ago | parent

A car that jumps - am I missing something? The speed numbers are cool.

synapsomorphy 2 hours ago | parent

Ok, so it actually flies. That was unexpected.

It's an incredible engineering achievement to build in massive fans and rocket engines into a high performance car. It's truly wild.

It's being sold in two modes. One with cold gas (no combustion) seemingly just for extra forwards acceleration (no flying) and one with real combustion rocket engines, the latter was in the video and is "invite only".

Wild that they devoted so much effort to an economically completely infeasible model. I wonder if the combustion version will even break 3 figures sales.

Even just the cold gas variant seems like a nightmare for production, there's a high pressure COPV in that thing and that's gonna make crashes much more.. exciting, and Tesla doesn't have a great record anyways. But very few of these are ever getting sold anyways.

delichon 1 hour ago | parent

> kinda wild they devoted this much effort to an economically completely infeasible model.

Watch Ford v Ferrari for an idea of what auto companies are willing to invest for bragging rights.

estearum 1 hour ago | parent

Ford and Ferrari aren’t on the brink of extinction

dboreham 51 minutes ago | parent

Tesla's stock price might be detached from reality, but is their actual business in trouble? I ask because anywhere I travel (Europe, UK, HK, NZ for example) there are just tons of Teslas, most of them the latest refresh models. There were more Telsas than BYD in Hong Kong!

pastel8739 1 hour ago | parent

to be fair we don’t actually know yet that this is a high performance car. We only saw it drive a few mph without rocket assistance

synapsomorphy 1 hour ago | parent

Good point. It can't have much battery. Also wonder if the propellant/s are cryogenic. Monopropellant? You could tell from analyzing the plume.

40four 34 minutes ago | parent

I think everyone is getting too caught up in the Thrust and Rocket variants. There aren’t going to be very many of those. But the base model will just be a regular Tesla.

LorenDB 13 minutes ago | parent

Sounds like it was just compressed air (rechargeable on the fly). Impressive if true.

casualscience 1 hour ago | parent

It's cool as fuck but calling it flying is misleading. It jumps and can maneuver in space.

pg_bot 1 hour ago | parent

"That wasn't flying. That was falling with style!"

metabagel 58 minutes ago | parent

It’s a flying squirrel.

hatthew 1 hour ago | parent

It's very economically feasible if it pumps up the stock price

billfor 1 hour ago | parent

I thought somewhere in the video they said that it is just regular compressed air that is held in a tank, and that the car itself has a compressor and regenerates the compressed air over time. Obviously to stabilize that amount of weight the gas has to be ejected at such a high rate it is practically frozen at the nozzle outlet, but it is still just regular air.

js2 1 hour ago | parent

> and one with real combustion rocket engines

The site states it's cold-gas thrusters for both models: "Features a multi-mode suction system paired with cold-gas thrusters positioned around the perimeter of the vehicle that support forward and upward acceleration as well as lateral rotational movement."

jcheng 1 hour ago | parent

Reading https://www.tesla.com/roadster, it seems like both variants only use cold gas thrusters, and the difference is that the "normal" (lol) one only has them pointed rearwards while the flying one has them pointed in all different directions as well.

jacquesm 1 hour ago | parent

I'm sure having a cold gas thruster is going to be no problem at all for road approval. /s

lallysingh 34 minutes ago | parent

Best guess is that it's disabled for anything but track/trick stuff. There will be some cool videos eventually showing up with tricks people pull with this. I don't know what else it's for.

I can imagine the lateral thrusters helping it turn faster on the track. Although I wonder if the extra weight is going to net out positive for lap times.

But really, a few very rich people will buy the full-rocket version to impress their friends. They'll play with them on private property.

m463 41 minutes ago | parent

> Wild that they devoted so much effort to an economically completely infeasible model.

Can't help but think of the not-a-flamethrower

(friend bought one for $500, now they seem to be worth $1500-$2000)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boring_Company#Merchandise

CamperBob2 17 minutes ago | parent

Isn't it just a relabeled weed burner?

defrost 10 minutes ago | parent

Reshaping of a classic blowtorch - if you're looking for a level up, try the Rodenator - less immediate flame, way more bang at the end.

m463 6 minutes ago | parent

The Rodenator is an applicable device that injects a precise mixture of oxygen and propane into the dens of burrowing rodents, and kills them with a concussive force that collapses the rodents' tunnel system as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_B_Meyer_Inc.

that sounds quite amazing, and it looks like something out of ghostbusters.

m463 9 minutes ago | parent

Maybe the roadster could just be termed a relabeled street sweeper?

(wonder how they'll keep stuff out of the intakes)

nullocator 27 minutes ago | parent

I suspect it "actually flies" much the same way the cybertruck is bullet proof and has an ultra hard stainless steel exoskeleton, in that it doesn't. This seems like smoke and mirrors conman shit pumped up to 11.

serf 21 minutes ago | parent

>Wild that they devoted so much effort to an economically completely infeasible model. I wonder if the combustion version will even break 3 figures sales.

it's wild to me after all of the on-stage lying that we're even considering what the future economics of the rocket-powered-road-car are going to be.

it's wild to me that he has yet to deliver on the self-driving stuff, but has decided to progress into rocket-powered circus vehicles.

it's wild to me that he's getting credit for a fan car, after 50+ years of on-track existence and the recent production of the McMurty.

I'm curious to see how it all pans out, and whether or not he has enough Washington connections to get a fan-powered rocket car onto the streets, and I am curious to see the first LA block-shutdown street race accident involving an intentionally aerial vehicle.

Historically fan cars haven't been allowed on the streets because they 1) destroy asphalt and 2) throw chunks of destroyed asphalt into traffic.

I'm not entirely sure how thrusters that can lift a 3k+ lbs sports car off the road jibe with preserving the roads for others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_predictions_for_autono...

jfoster 18 minutes ago | parent

They save on advertising to spend on mind-blowing demos.

ofjcihen 2 hours ago | parent

Reading some of this feels like I’m having a stroke.

>This provides enough suction to hold the vehicle upside down, even when stationary.

Neat car though.

jesse_faden 2 hours ago | parent

I've been recently playing a game called Approximately Up. You start from simple building blocks, thrusters and can use the in game logic system to build complex controls. One of the things I came about to learn was something to make a hover system for my ship was a simple PID controller. The side and bottom firing thrusters just remind me of my ship in the game. While the game is oversimplified and a bit arcadey, does anyone know what actually goes into this in the real life and is the huge feat the improvement on the weight of the whole car?

pbohun 2 hours ago | parent

Okay, that's some of the most impressive feats I've ever seen. Congratulations to the engineers!

cr125rider 40 minutes ago | parent

Because it makes zero economic sense to make a car do that?

swyx 18 minutes ago | parent

you fail to understand the psychology of billionaires

loveTech 1 hour ago | parent

Unavailable to visit?

portmanteur 1 hour ago | parent

As a father of a growing family, I am still waiting for the RoBovan.

mullingitover 1 hour ago | parent

So this is a completely obvious scam, right? I don't see anyone else calling this out and I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

The thing that they showed off isn't something that they could legally sell, it would basically be a bomb. Also, the battery pack that would go in the car would be so large that they couldn't do the stunts they showed in their drone vehicle.

Are we not calling an obvious stock pumping charade what it is out of some sense of politeness?

speg 1 hour ago | parent

That’s why it’s invite only.

phyzix5761 1 hour ago | parent

China has had flying cars since 2023 so I don't see how this is a scam. The flying mechanism is unique for the Roadster so that's still to be seen how it would perform out in public.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZpQZSBTi7k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2c-B3y7yGQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU5viDOjWLw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSjXf7IUSDw

crummy 1 hour ago | parent

wow i did not realise this. are there videos of these flying cars? can you buy them?

phyzix5761 1 hour ago | parent

Yep, just google: china flying cars. They're basically human sized drones/quadcopters.

Nition 1 hour ago | parent

The only one I can think that they might mean is the BYD Yangwang U9. It can jump a tiny bit.

motionlessveloc 1 hour ago | parent

XPeng has been spruiking flying cars (really just giant quadcopters) for a while now, but while they exist and can fly, they're more of a publicity stunt. For example, while you can buy the X2 in Australia, you can't legally fly it.

https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/australias-first-flyin...

solyin 1 hour ago | parent

There's also a real life speeder bike from Star Wars, if you've got an extra million dollars sitting around.

https://volonaut.com/

TheDong 1 hour ago | parent

I mean, Tesla demoed, promised, and took reservation money for a roadster reboot that _also_ didn't contain any technology China didn't have in 2017, and at this point they still haven't delivered on that and it feels safe to call it a scam.

Just because the technology is technically feasible doesn't mean that a specific company is not scamming you when they promise it.

And Tesla already has enough of a history of fake promises (your tesla will be a self-driving robotaxi earning money while you sleep within a few years, FSD will take you across the country while you sleep by next year, humanoid robots, the new roadster is taking reservations now and will deliver soon, regulation is the only thing holding up FSD, etc etc).

phyzix5761 1 hour ago | parent

To be fair the main reason why FSD hasn't been a wide spread thing is mostly due to local regulations. The technology exists and performs fairly well. FSD is allowed in pretty much all the same cities Waymo is allowed to operate so we can see from this that its a regulatory issue not a technological one.

m4ck_ 1 hour ago | parent

I mean it looks cool but considering they haven't produced any of the other Roadster models in any meaningful quantity, and have repeatedly come up short on much more reasonable product offerings... Idk I have just the slightest doubt about a flying electric car hitting the market any time soon. Hasn't it been nearly a decade since the promise of a software update that would turn your Tesla into a self-driving taxi that can earn money while you're not using it?

bakies 1 hour ago | parent

none of these are videos of flying cars

sailfast 1 hour ago | parent

If you wanted another pretext to merge Tesla and SpaceX this would be a good way.

The existing tech fab plus this car maybe makes it harder to sue once the merger happens - but he will still be sued. “Look we’re making it rocket cars with AI of course we should be one company”

estearum 1 hour ago | parent

A pretext that convinces the most credulous people on the planet. Clever guy this Musk.

espeed 1 hour ago | parent

When I searched for Tesla on YouTube at the start of the event, the first live event returned was this, an AI generated Tesla presentation with Elon telling users to send bitcoin and he'll send you back double as a promotional event like an X Money thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5EDp2rEbFA. The QR code went to this site: https://roadster.tv. I reported it to YouTube.

40four 51 minutes ago | parent

Why are you reposting links to scams?

espeed 16 minutes ago | parent

So someone can look into it.

adocomplete 1 hour ago | parent

I mean is it ever actually being released? probably not.

Was it a an amazing demo? yes.

tiku 1 hour ago | parent

Well I see no numbers saying how long it will fly. Perhaps it "hops", could easily see that happening with a burst of air below the car. (While standing still, accelerating the car upwards for 1 second with a burst of air)

solyin 1 hour ago | parent

https://x.com/tesla/status/2110913438293647789/video/1

Looks like 4 seconds or so.

jklinger410 26 minutes ago | parent

That doesn't seem like flying to me

tdhz77 1 hour ago | parent

I was #12 Tesla Roadster owner. I spoke across the country with my father. We drove from coast to coast in 2014 at a time when there was a lot of doubt. — I supported elons “mission” and now we know it’s a neo Nazi front of a company. This company and Elon has been a scam since he stole JB Straubel. How do I know? JB Straubel is my father.

jacquesm 1 hour ago | parent

I can't make soup of this. Your dad is a billionaire and you're left to fend for yourself? That's got to be some story.

tdhz77 46 minutes ago | parent

You didn’t read what I wrote.

matt-attack 1 hour ago | parent

Neo Nazi? Seems a bit much.

otterley 56 minutes ago | parent

If it talks about politics like a Nazi and salutes like a Nazi…

tdhz77 45 minutes ago | parent

Elon donates to white Christian fundamentalist. The largest donor in history to the Republican Party and does Nazi salutes.

mlindner 1 hour ago | parent

I think calling it a scam is a crazy thing to say. Tesla has never not (eventually) shipped a product they said they would .

Also yes you can legally sell it. Whether you can legally operate it is a different question.

seabrookmx 1 hour ago | parent

The second generation Roadster (reservations for which opened in 2017) literally is the product they didn't ship.

Also Cybercab.

How many Optimus robots are out in the wild?

It is a scam, 100%.

testing22321 33 minutes ago | parent

There are now 300 cyber cabs driving people around Austin, and they’re working on rolling it out.

Optimus is coming, the huge factory in Austin is being built now.

Late? Always. But coming.

charlesabarnes 1 hour ago | parent

The roadster hasn't shipped after 9 years. Including a referral program for preorders. I find it incredibly more insane to be trusting of this

billfor 1 hour ago | parent

He actually says in the video that it might not be legal to operate but they could still sell you one. Anything is legal off-road on your own private property.

ygjb 1 hour ago | parent

Yeah, once you leave the ground you aren't on your property anymore.

fivefifty 1 hour ago | parent

Depends where you are, but generally you are good to around 400ft above your own property in most cases.

billfor 58 minutes ago | parent

FAA jurisdiction over the airspace is not the same as a rule prohibiting every form of powered lift-off within it. There's a lot of grey area in FAA regs - for instance you can land a plane on your lawn in class E (if you could manage it).

derektank 45 minutes ago | parent

Not true, though the exact boundary is not well defined. See US v. Causby

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Causby

bakies 1 hour ago | parent

this is a new roadster, the previous roadster hasnt sold a unit

javascriptfan69 38 minutes ago | parent

WAIT THIS ISN'T THE ONE THAT PEOPLE PREORDERED NINE YEARS AGO?

alasdair_ 1 hour ago | parent

He took preorders for the roadster nine years ago. It never shipped.

otterley 59 minutes ago | parent

May I remind you of the promised 90 second battery swap…13 years ago? https://youtu.be/Oj6LaYFall4?si=RGE8mbZQFdElq0sq

m463 47 minutes ago | parent

There are a long list of cars that have not-really-legal abilities.

The corvette ZR-1 had a special key that would unlock all the performance. I don't think it met emissions when unlocked.

Lots of newer muscle cars have performance modes and dragstrip modes that you shouldn't use.

Even other teslas, like model 3 performance and model s plaid have have track mode and dragstrip mode that shouldn't be used on public streets.

billfor 1 hour ago | parent

Well we could examine the history here, for instance when he bought Twitter that it would immediately collapse (now its more popular than ever and Bluesky is the one that's falling apart) and when the Cybertruck was announced there were lots of people saying it could never be made: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21602437

40four 44 minutes ago | parent

It’s crazy how many Cybertrucks I see in my hometown, and I don’t live in that big of a city. They are incredibly popular. This car will be incredibly popular to. Peoples are getting bent out of shape about the “thrust” and “rocket” variants, but who cares? Those will be few and far between. For rich collectors mostly. How about just the base model? It looks wild, I’m sure it will be fun as hell to drive. They are going to sell a ton of these things.

leesec 1 hour ago | parent

What are you talking about re: the battery pack?

Nition 1 hour ago | parent

I suppose at least we can say there is a working car that seems to be able to actually do the things as advertised, which is more than one could ever say for e.g. the Moller Skycar.

j4k0bfr 1 hour ago | parent

I feel like it's also crazy irresponsible to sell this deathtrap to the public, since it's pretty much guaranteed buyers will joyride this on public roads.

- The cold-gas only version will shotgun debris into onlookers, and possibly yeet anyone behind it.

- Active suction is very cool until a rock punches through your intakes.

- Lithium batteries and pressurised tanks in the same package, yippee!

Thank god it'll take them years to manufacture this thing.

zdragnar 47 minutes ago | parent

It isn't being sold to the public. Of the three versions, the one that is "road ready" doesn't have the gimmicky thrusters. The one that is displayed is available by invite only, and even if you have a quarter of a million to reserve the racing model, you aren't likely to get a license plate for use on public roads.

javascriptfan69 42 minutes ago | parent

They're not selling this to the public.

They'll make a handful that a select few billionaires will get to keep in a hanger somewhere for bragging rights.

There's a reason we don't see a driver in these demos and they don't do anything beyond very choreographed stunts. There's no way a human can actually control those thrusters in a way that doesn't kill you. Unless you're a fighter pilot.

jrflo 1 hour ago | parent

I think it’s real, the “invite only” version could probably do the kickflip over the semis, but would probably completely exhaust the tanks and require special equipment to refill or take hours with an onboard pump. And the flip is certainly a scripted stunt, not something you’d actually be able to do live. The math doesn’t seem to be completely unreasonable as a one off demo

al_borland 47 minutes ago | parent

They said there is a compressor to re-pressurize the tanks while driving. It made it sound like a power-up in a video game. You can't use it all the time, but if you wait for it to charge up, use it as many times as you want.

I think the bigger issue with be making it street legal. Kickflipping over traffic, and refusing visibility for everyone to 0 in the process, can't be good.

For closed courses, movies, etc it's really cool.

jrflo 25 minutes ago | parent

I don’t think it would be street legal, hence the invite only thing. More of a status symbol / car collector curiosity than an actual car

WheelsAtLarge 45 minutes ago | parent

My big question is, would anyone want one? It's an interesting life size hotwheels car but who would want one other than to show at a monster truck rally. The original Tesla Roadster was a masterpiece compared to this new one. Talk about missing the mark by a mile...

euio757 34 minutes ago | parent

> who would want one

The Tumbler? Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that.

testing22321 35 minutes ago | parent

Flying is obviously a gimmick, but when Elon said this will crush all track records he wasn’t kidding.

The base model has the suction fans which will make huge gains.

Next model up has rear thrusters for the acceleration, which will be more insane. It’s limited production.

Final model that can fly is invite only and will be a joke on the track, using those thrusters to go around corners way, way faster than normal.

I wish they had shown track laps and 1/4 mile times instead of the gimmick of flying.

tekacs 1 hour ago | parent

The fact that the one that can fly is invite-only makes me wonder if there would be ITAR issues with the guidance mechanisms that they have to put into it.

I'm not saying that there aren't lower hanging fruit reasons why they wouldn't make more of those, but you can see how the guidance necessary to make this move the way that it does could be dual use.

viraptor 1 hour ago | parent

I suspect it's more because some rando could actually try to use it in public space. The invite only means they could send it to people who will give them good PR, are known not to be idiots, and can be invited to sign many responsibility disclaimers.

tekacs 1 hour ago | parent

That makes a ton of sense, yes! To be honest, I was wondering less about their reasons for invite-only and more about whether this kind of gentle and precise guidance with cold gas thrusters might hit ITAR.

djeastm 1 hour ago | parent

I must be old. I just keep thinking about what kind of whiplash I'd get with those flips

hristov 1 hour ago | parent

He has finally gone bonkers. Drugs are bad, mmmmkay.

Imagine the engineer hours wasted on this gimmick, while he is losing market share everywhere.

vagab0nd 1 hour ago | parent

I never thought I'd live to see K.I.T.T

FabHK 1 hour ago | parent

There are three configurations:

- Performance: road ready, seats two, active aero and a “multi-mode suction system.” 0-60 mph in under 1.6 seconds. Available by reservation.

- Thrust: race ready, seats two, adds rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters. 0-60 mph in under 0.9 seconds. Limited release.

- Rocket: seats one, adds thrusters around the perimeter of the car for upward and rotational movement. 0-60 mph in under 0.59 seconds and a top speed of over 230 mph. Invite only.

Per Electrek: https://electrek.co/2026/10/15/tesla-unveils-cyberfied-new-r...

david927 1 hour ago | parent

This is incredible engineering and deserves nothing but applause.

j4k0bfr 1 hour ago | parent

It's only incredible engineering once it performs in the hands of buyers. It's an incredible demo until then.

bigstrat2003 16 minutes ago | parent

It's not like demos are bereft of engineering. It's still incredible engineering even if they never ship a single car.

darkstar999 45 minutes ago | parent

"My heart goes out to you"

cr125rider 41 minutes ago | parent

Uhhhh sure if rocket propulsion is fair game now? Seems a little overdone. Is my local DOT okay with this?

afavour 7 minutes ago | parent

It’s a spec sheet. It will be incredible engineering when it’s in the hands of customers.

maxnevermind 1 hour ago | parent

I guess robotaxi is failing? This is my only explanation of that jumping gimmick.

al_borland 31 minutes ago | parent

The Robotaxi just started rolling out beyond Austin a few months ago. You think they threw together a flying car on a whim in a matter of weeks?

i_love_retros 1 hour ago | parent

Listen, if you rightfully believe Elon Musk is a white supremacist piece of shit who used his wealth to buy his way in to Trump's regime to steal huge amounts of data on the american public and who attempts to influence foreign democracies and who promotes far right conspiracies, please don't buy his fucking cars.

phyzix5761 1 hour ago | parent

The engineering team did an amazing job!

joquarky 52 minutes ago | parent

Great, now how about putting some of those amazing engineering brain cells into solving the impending water crisis.

MaxHoppersGhost 46 minutes ago | parent

Go back to Reddit, we’re trying to enjoy cool stuff.

est 1 hour ago | parent

Is that the Draco engine?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Draco

Geee 1 hour ago | parent

No, they're cold gas thrusters. The car has an air compressor, a composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV) and 10 nozzles.

nilsbunger 1 hour ago | parent

Are they serious about the rocket version??

phyzome 1 hour ago | parent

Technically very impressive. I wonder if they'll actually produce and sell any of these.

And too bad it's associated with a Nazi shitheel. That takes a lot of the joy out of this.

darksim905 1 hour ago | parent

I absolutely detest the leadership and what he is actively doing to this country... but holy fucking shit. I want to reserve one, but when you're broke as a joke... ooph.

salamandars 1 hour ago | parent

The video goes against my intuition for how much performance you can get out of cold gas thrusters. I wonder if someone could do some back of the envelope maths on how much thrust and impulse you can get from a setup like this?

My primary scepticism is how much the prototype weighs, and whether it can still jump with 2 passengers + 1000kg of batteries inside.

tristanj 1 hour ago | parent

Based on the statement that the suction fan generates 2g of downforce, and the telemetry showing the fan operating at 4,700 kg @ ~95% load, the vehicle weighs approximately 2,300 to 2,500 kg.

alexpadula 1 hour ago | parent

Flying cars before GTA6.

al_borland 38 minutes ago | parent

Rockstar better get to work adding this car to the game.

latentsea 1 hour ago | parent

I'd buy one for the police chases. Hell yes. Not that I'm in the billionaire invite-only inner circle, and not that they'll ever ship it.

Keyframe 1 hour ago | parent

Production and other realities aside, I've seen some cool shit in my life and this demo is high up there! Did you guys catch 0.5 mach target top speed? That's 600kmh. It'd better do that flying because there probably aren't any rubber tyres that could endure that before exploding within seconds.

sailfast 1 hour ago | parent

Nice Testarossa!

fivedogcity 1 hour ago | parent

The real feat would be to actually ship the gas-equipped models. The on-stage demonstration was certainly quite impressive but handling real world terrain is a whole different story. Not to mention compensating for drivers who will skew lead-footed without any experience of handling a third dimension.

I am skeptical that this feature will prove to be much more than a publicity stunt, especially since the availability of these models will be so limited.

sawjet 1 hour ago | parent

You can hate the man, but you must respect him. Flying cars have truly arrived.

dawnerd 1 hour ago | parent

No they haven't? It can hop at best, in a demo unit, designed specifically for that demo.

joquarky 55 minutes ago | parent

No. Respect is earned.

reenorap 1 hour ago | parent

So it can fly?

Just like we will have 1 million robotaxis on the streets by 2021?

EDIT: wow it really can fly, that is crazy

dmix 1 hour ago | parent

The suction and air recovery part might be forward thinking for how we design roads or tunnels. They might not all need to be flat. Especially when autonomous.

clintonb 1 hour ago | parent

So the CyberCab will drive on the ceiling of the Boring Company’s tunnel?

dmix 1 hour ago | parent

Definitely not upside down, I was thinking of short inclines, possible as a sort of tunnel bypass. Assuming all the cars are networked for mechanical failures and the batteries can handle it. But that's only after the 5 minutes I spent considering the idea and mostly stolen from I Robot movie like most of Tesla's ideas.

al_borland 39 minutes ago | parent

The biggest hurdle might be if the public would be tolerant of such extreme angles. It would feel like a slow roller coaster.

dmix 27 minutes ago | parent

Yeah I was thinking it would suck for a passenger which is why it would only be useful for temporary bypass situations, since tunnels can clog up if cars fail. But that's a lot of engineering just for that one usecase. But I do except tunnels to become much more popular as cities become more dense and cars become automated.

m463 34 minutes ago | parent

also parking.

macinjosh 1 hour ago | parent

Sorry about the eggs honey, I had to use the thrusters to get past this cyclist.

tdhz77 1 hour ago | parent

Ai slop on a billion dollar company should tell you everything you know about how we are doomed by this ai experiment

tiku 1 hour ago | parent

So they are going to send one of to space again?

4d4m 1 hour ago | parent

I dig the commitment to the low poly look! Really cool and fits in with the new design direction.

Kuyawa 1 hour ago | parent

Technology: spectacular, design: ugly as fuck

LeoPanthera 1 hour ago | parent

If this is real, it's going to kill people.

seabrookmx 1 hour ago | parent

Yay the (almost) 10th anniversary of the 2nd generation Roadster reservations, and now it's got fucking rockets apparently?

How delusional are people? The emperor is not wearing clothes y'all.

ceroxylon 1 hour ago | parent

The rocket flip part looks like CGI, in my opinion. I get the same feeling as when I see CGI on some random B movie. Would be happy to be proven wrong if there was a crowd of people filming from their angle though.

Also "Beyond The Limits of Physics"... would any actual engineers at Tesla/SpaceX agree with that marketing statement?

dyauspitr 1 hour ago | parent

Is this a gas that needs to be refilled with the cold thrust one?

luckydata 1 hour ago | parent

At this point this is some sort of IQ test right?

george_max 1 hour ago | parent

This is an incredible feat of engineering. I have my doubts of the 2028 mass production timeline, but I am quite amazed.

etothet 1 hour ago | parent

I watched the ~16 minute presentation on YouTube and it was as if Elon and the two other guys presenting were doing a skit at a talent show. They seemed extremely unprepared. Maybe they were intentionally trying to come across as off the cuff, but it felt unnatural and cringey. Together they have the charisma of a paper clip. These guys are so full of themselves that it’s difficult to appreciate whatever accomplishment this may or may not be. And, of course, no way it will be street legal with air thrusters. What a complete joke.

al_borland 43 minutes ago | parent

When presenting the world with a flying car, one doesn't need much extra charisma, the demo does it all. I think most people would be pretty excited (or full of themselves) knowing what they were about to show.

dualvariable 1 hour ago | parent

I mean, this is the gimmicky of gimmicks for the ultra-rich.

It just means you can do jumps and stunts programmed into the vehicle at the push of a button with zero skill at being a stunt driver.

The Dukes of Hazzard had to do that without the thrusters.

Can't wait to see how people kill themselves and other people with those things by being stupid...

Hopefully that shit gets blocked by the DOT and kept off public roads--which is probably the goal to get a bunch of drooling simps outraged over "government overreach" keeping them away from their "flying cars".

jacquesm 1 hour ago | parent

> and other people

That's the bit where we diverge.

gcanyon 1 hour ago | parent

Anyone know the physics of mach diamonds purely from compressed gas? I'm not a physicist, but I thought one of the key aspects of compressed gas is that it can't expand faster than the speed of sound in that gas -- the speed of sound is literally the limit to how fast it can expand?

dbg31415 58 minutes ago | parent

Relevant.

* The Fastest Maze-Solving Competition On Earth - YouTube // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMQbHMgK2rw

DeepYogurt 55 minutes ago | parent

Tesla hitting their lambo era?

swyx 36 minutes ago | parent

> an expertly crafted extra-terrestrial vehicle.

hmmmm. spacex-tesla merger signalling?

mjamil 36 minutes ago | parent

Using suction to create downforce is an idea that’s been built for race track usage in the past (and been successful in F1 in the ‘70s), but the near certainty of mortal injury from the system failing (and thus destabilizing the vehicle at high speed) made it unpopular and its incorporation has been very limited (McLaren and Ariel did versions, I think). I’m confused how this has (or will pass) regulatory approval for road use. Is the idea that the driver should only utilize this on a track?

modeless 22 minutes ago | parent

I think others have used a skirt that needs to extend quite close to the ground to work, so uneven ground can cause sudden loss of suction. Maybe this is solvable somehow?

I'm more worried about the COPVs exploding in a crash, for the thruster version. Hopefully it will keep the tanks empty unless a special launch mode is enabled with appropriate large warnings.

siwatanejo 31 minutes ago | parent

It seems it's not a convertible anymore? Which means it shouldn't be called a Roadster.

smoovb 30 minutes ago | parent

I am amazed at how steady and in control the car was when flipping and jumping. If that kind of control on a vehicle is achieved today, it seems like flying car tech just took a giant lurch forward. Just in time for America's crumbling road infrastructure.

Animats 27 minutes ago | parent

People who already have a Veyron should go for this.

It's very impressive. Not useful, but impressive.

senectus1 19 minutes ago | parent

there are approximately 450 in existence.. (ever made) Lets assume this car costs 1M each. (i bet its less) so if they sold 450 of these they'd make less than 500 million.

If they ever deliver a single unit that's a low enough bar to make it completely economically infeesable.

if they somehow managed to sell a couple of thousand... it might become profitable.

this has to be just a fantastic bit of marketing to jazz up their share price.

also.. I'd love to see a blooper roll of making it do these things...

nullocator 24 minutes ago | parent

I can't wait for some rich asshole going 120 mph to backflip their Tesla into my Outback on the interstate.

atlgator 23 minutes ago | parent

This is one of those products that offers a thrilling demo but I have no desire to own one. I much prefer the 2020 design that never made it to production.

archagon 12 minutes ago | parent

Just as a reminder, Musk is a virulent white supremacist who funds far-right politics around the world and is directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in Africa through his reckless disemboweling of USAID. But yes, let's all look at shiny car.

At least the people who buy this will be unequivocally branding themselves as utter douchebags.

bradthebeaverfa 8 minutes ago | parent

That surpassed all expectations.

I'm so glad Elon exists. He must have spent over $100 million to build the flying variant with no hope of ever profiting off it. I can't imagine any other CEO ever doing that.

archagon 6 minutes ago | parent

Hundreds of thousands of dead Africans may not be so happy he exists.

__mharrison__ 6 minutes ago | parent

Wow, cool aesthetic. I feel like the this is what the cybertruck should have looked like but they didn't quite finish the design.