Tesla reveals flying Roadster

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the redesigned second-generation Roadster with SpaceX thrusters at an event outside Waco, Texas on October fifteen, twenty twenty-six.

The car flies and lands itself

The Roadster demonstrated flying capabilities using high-powered fans and thrusters to drive up an inverted ramp, spin around, and ease itself to a landing on pavement below.

It lifted over multiple Tesla models

The car used thrusters to lift itself over a Cybercab, Cybertruck, Tesla Semi, Model Y, and Model three while in motion during the demonstration.

Acceleration and speed specs

Tesla showed the Roadster accelerating zero to sixty miles per hour in one second. All three trims will have three hundred miles of range and exceed two hundred thirty miles per hour.

Three trim levels offered

Performance is road ready and seats two with active aerodynamics.Thrust is race ready, seats two, and has rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters enabling sub-one-second zero-to-sixty acceleration.

Reservation prices announced

Tesla is taking reservations charging fifty thousand dollars to reserve the Performance trim and two hundred fifty thousand dollars for Thrust. The Rocket trim is billed as invite only.

How the thrusters work

Engineering VP Lars Moravy said the Roadster uses ten thrusters connected to six hundred liters of compressed air to lift and spin the car in midair. The air tank can be recharged.

Pressure vessels fill every space

Tesla wrote that every usable void in the car is packed with Carbon Fiber Overwrapped Pressure Vessels, the type of pressure vessel that has been at the root of multiple SpaceX rocket explosions.

Musk on safety and the car

Musk said safety is not the main goal with the new Roadster. If safety is your number one goal, do not buy the Roadster, he said on a podcast earlier this year.

“If you buy a Ferrari, safety is not the number one goal. I say, if safety is your number one goal, do not buy the Roadster.”

Design inspired by aircraft

The white Roadster has a more angular design reminiscent of a Lamborghini and the Lotus Esprit from James Bond's The Spy Who Loved Me.

Nine years of delays

Tesla first revealed the second-generation Roadster in twenty seventeen at the Tesla Semi reveal. Musk delayed the car in twenty twenty, twenty twenty-one, twenty twenty-three, and twenty twenty-four before the October fifteen reveal.

Production promised for 2028

Musk said Tesla will finally build the Roadster in twenty twenty-eight but did not name a price. He previously said on Joe Rogan's podcast he wanted to reveal it by the end of twenty twenty-five.

Customers express skepticism

YouTuber Marques Brownlee posted that Tesla said the four thousand plus pound car can do flips and go half the speed of sound at three hundred eighty plus miles per hour and will ship in…

“They really just got on stage and said this newly designed 4000+ pound car can do flips and go half the speed of sound (380+mph) and will ship in 2028. This is a prank, right?”