Elon Musk recently sat down with Joe Rogan for three hours, discussing everything from space to politics before settling on the Roadster, which has been in the works for a long time. Near the end of the conversation, Musk leaned in closer and offered to show us a demonstration by the end of 2025. “Unforgettable,” he said, before abruptly mentioning flying and how he intends to make that happen.
You might recall that Peter Thiel complained a while back that the future forgot to deliver on those flying cars. Musk was already aware of that complaint & had been saying for years that Tesla were going to change that. He went on the Joe Rogan podcast and refused to give any details as to how he plans to pull it off. Joe pressed him for specifics – does it come with wings? “Just wait for the demo” was all Musk would say – a sly smile spreading across his face.
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That Roadster, by the way, was first shown off back in 2017 – with promises of deliveries by 2020. Five years have now gone by and all we’ve seen is one excuse after another – each one followed by a new promise. Production was meant to start in 2021, then 2022 – and who knows what year will come next? Despite all this, people have been shelling out 50 thousand dollars for a spot in line – a non-refundable deposit for most. Even Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, put down a deposit back in 2018 – but last week he asked for his money back after the reservation email bounced.
Musk still talks like the Roadster is just sitting there in a hangar, ready to go. He tells us that there’s a SpaceX package hidden behind the license plate – one that can push the car forward or even lift it off the ground. There’s a patent that was filed which suggests that the car has fans built into the side skirts – and that those fans can run in different directions to either blow out air for some downforce or pull in air to create lift. That might be enough power to let the car hover a few seconds – which matches up with some of the pretty wild claims that Musk made back in his tweets about the Roadster jumping over curbs or floating above traffic.
Joe Rogan asked him point blank whether the car actually flies & Musk sidestepped the question yet again. He started comparing the Roadster to every single James Bond car ever made – but then added that it might not even be a car at all. The audience laughed, but Musk just kept a straight face.
The latest sign that the Roadster’s still on the backburner came this month when Tesla hired a battery engineer who’s specifically working on an electric car – the job description even mentions the Roadster by name. Now, we know that this can’t be the only prototype out there – otherwise, no way would they be planning a big unveil by December. That in itself is a pretty surprising claim.
It’s worth mentioning that some companies progressed much faster. BYD has been selling the YangWang U9 for a while; it has four motors, 3,000 horsepower, a lap time of less than seven minutes at the Nürburgring, and can raise the body high enough to pass potholes. The Tesla Roadster, on the other hand, promised a blazing zero to sixty mph in under a second – yet BYD managed 2.36 seconds, and the vehicles have already been transported and customers are driving them home.
Tesla’s own car lineup has altered priorities drastically, with the Cybertruck project consuming engineering work for years. Robotaxi ambitions are currently dominating the earnings calls. However, the Roadster is mentioned from time to time, generally when someone inquires as to what truly excites Elon. Tesla’s design chief, Franz von Holzhausen, memorably described the Roadster as the “cherry on top of the icing on the cake” – the lowest priority, biggest hype. Musk simply keeps the idea alive with little pieces of knowledge – a thruster here, a fan there, and the promise of flight.
