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Orlin Ivanov

Orlin Ivanov

The Tesla Roadster is finally here, and it flies

  • Tesla
  • Tesla Roadster
  • Elon Musk
  • SpaceX
  • EV
  • flying car
  • Back to the Future

My notes on Tesla's Roadster event in McGregor, Texas. What they showed, what Elon Musk, Lars Moravy and Franz von Holzhausen said, what my friends asked first, and what I think of it.

When a new EV comes out, my friends always ask the same first question. How many kilometres can it go? In Bulgaria that usually means one thing: can I reach the seaside with it? Last week, for the first time, the first reaction was not about range. It was "How much time can it stay in the air?".

The event

Tesla unveiled the new Roadster on Thursday, 15 October, at SpaceX's rocket test and development center in McGregor, Texas. Tesla's teaser gave the start time as 7:55 pm CST. Some people watched in person, and the rest of us watched online.

One small thing I noticed. 7:55 pm is 19:55, and 1955 is the year Marty McFly travels back to in Back to the Future. Tesla never said this was on purpose, so take it as my own reading. But the teaser image had faint text just above the taillight that reads "WHERE WE'RE GOING...". If you have seen the film, you know how that sentence ends.

The pre-show was a Raptor engine static fire. Then Franz von Holzhausen and Lars Moravy opened the program. Franz went back to the first Roadster, 20 years ago, and Lars explained what the car means to him:

"To be honest, the Roadster is the reason I came to Tesla … we had a master plan to build an EV that proved that we could do everything that Franz just said and then make a cheaper EV that people could afford with Model S and then we built Model 3 and Model Y."

Then Franz and Lars called Elon Musk out on stage. He promised crazy stuff and explained why there was a live audience:

"We need an audience to prove that it's not AI or SI so you guys can tell people you saw it with your eyes because what you see with your eyes you will not believe."

SI here means super intelligence.

What they showed

The demos were the real show. The car drove itself for them, which Musk said was to make sure nobody got hurt. After a countdown came the first flight, which they later called "just a little flight". Once it was over, Musk brought up a line from his friend Peter Thiel:

"The future promised us flying cars, but instead we got 140 characters. Well, not anymore."

Later that night he posted on X, "Turns out the future does have flying cars".

Then they explained how it works. A fan suction system under the car can pull up to 2 G, enough to make the car go upside down, and SpaceX technology does the rest. Musk put it his own way:

"This car really sucks. Okay. This car could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch."

Then came a longer flight. The car used its thrusters to jump over a line of Teslas: a Cybercab, a Cybertruck, a Semi, a Model Y and a Model 3, and Franz named the move:

"Tony Hawk would be proud. We call that the kick flip."

Starman, the dummy from Elon Musk's old Roadster that SpaceX once put into orbit, also made an appearance.

Franz explained where the look comes from:

"Since we knew Roadster was going to fly, we looked for some inspiration about flying and we thought we would lean into the most badass stuff out there, SR71, cars that transform. And that led us to the new Roadster."

Tesla's post on X puts it more briefly, "Roadster is inspired by the SR-71 & F-35".

After that they brought the car out and switched the fans on. Then came acceleration. First they showed a test video. Then they did a live 0 to 60 mph run on a pad that was too short for a full run, and the time came up as 0.81 seconds. Musk said the production car would do even better. They closed the show with one more demo.

Three versions, and no price

Tesla's Configurations post on X lists three trims:

  • Performance. Two seats, active aerodynamics and a multi-mode suction system. Tesla calls it "road ready" and quotes 0 to 60 in under 1.6 seconds.
  • Thrust. Two seats, plus rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters. Tesla quotes 0 to 60 in under 0.9 seconds.
  • Rocket. One seat, with thrusters around the car for forward and upward acceleration and rotation. Tesla quotes 0 to 60 in under 0.59 seconds, and the description ends with "So...yes, it can fly".

Tesla lists the range as over 300 miles and the top speed as over 230 mph for the Rocket. On stage Lars also said the car can go over 230 mph. Musk wants more, about half the speed of sound.

Nobody mentioned a price on stage, and Tesla's reservation page doesn't show one. To reserve, the page asks for $5,000 up front, fully refundable, and $45,000 within 10 days for the Performance trim and $5,000 up front, fully refundable, and $245,000 within 10 days for the Thrust. The Rocket trim says "Invite only" with no details about price or payment.

On timing, Musk said:

"We enter production in 2028."

Nobody gave a delivery date. On whether you will be allowed to drive it, Musk said:

"I'm not sure it's necessarily legal in all jurisdictions, but … there will be such a car that someone can own."

What my friends said

Once they got past "How much time can it stay in the air?", these were my favourites:

"Imagine this in the hands of a BMW driver."

"How would you signal that you are going up anyway?!"

"Hotwheels for grown ups!"

Some were also sceptical that it would ever be anything other than a prototype, or a movie prop, and make it into serial production. I understand why. However, the same thing was said about the Cybertruck.

What I think

I love the new look. The photos and promo videos remind me of old-school sci-fi like Alien, and of space exploration. I'm excited to learn more from the deep-dive reviews by Out of Spec Reviews and Top Gear.

What I hoped would be better is the event itself, at least as we saw it on the livestream. Despite the incredible demos, it didn't deliver the excitement it promised. Compared to how the Cybertruck entered the stage back in the day, this was rather flat.

I see it as a missed opportunity. They could even have gone the cliché way and recreated the Back to the Future scene where Doc Brown says the famous line:

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."

They were close. The teaser already had "WHERE WE'RE GOING..." hidden in it, and Musk said on stage:

"Where we're going, you don't need tires."

That line got a laugh, and that was as close as the night came to the scene.

All in all, I'm happy that we finally saw it. For me, the doubts and the haters are just noise. This car is not going to change the world the way the Model 3 and Model Y are doing, but I do think we are going to see it in production. It will not move the needle for Tesla's revenue or the stock price. It's a marquee product, a way to draw attention, or maybe a way to plant the idea of a merger between Tesla and SpaceX.

So what was your first thought when you saw it? Range, price, or how long it can stay in the air?

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