Austin, Texas: Tesla unveiled its long-delayed next-generation Roadster on October 15, 2026. The electric sports car, which Elon Musk says can fly, did flips and jumps in a live-streamed demonstration at a SpaceX test facility. “Flying cars are real,” Musk told the audience. He also admitted that success was “not guaranteed.”
In the first demonstration, the two-seat car drove up a towering, curved ramp and clung to it upside down. It then launched off the end, rolled 180 degrees in midair, and landed on its wheels. “Well, it worked,” Musk said afterward. In a second stunt, the car accelerated toward a row of parked Teslas and jumped 27 feet in the air, according to the company, while performing a barrel roll.
The “flying” is closer to a rocket-assisted jump than to flight. The car uses cold-gas thrusters built with SpaceX technology, powered by high-pressure air tanks. A set of fans under the car pulls it toward the ground which Tesla says gives it extreme grip, and Tesla’s vehicle engineering chief said the fans can pull up to two Gs. That is how the car can drive upside down.
Tesla is taking reservations for three versions of the Roadster. The Performance model is road-ready and has the suction system but no thrusters. The Thrust model adds rear thrusters and is aimed at racing. The invite-only Rocket model seats one person and is the version capable of the aerial stunts in the demo. Tesla claims the car can go from zero to 60 mph in 0.8 seconds, which would beat any production car, and says its top speed will exceed 230 mph.
The Roadster has a history of missed deadlines. Tesla first announced the new model nearly a decade ago, and production has slipped repeatedly. Musk said on Thursday that production will not begin until 2028 and gave no price. He said the car will go about 300 miles per charge, less than half the range originally promised. Musk has hinted at a flying Roadster since 2024. He tied the idea to investor Peter Thiel’s complaint that the future was supposed to have flying cars.
Tesla’s website says the flying model is not approved for use on public roads. That leaves open where owners could legally use the thrusters, and no regulator has said how it would treat a road car that can leave the ground. Musk himself joked that the car is “not necessarily a safety-optimized car.”
Critics have called the project spectacle rather than transportation. Axios described the car as “gloriously absurd” and said it is hard to see what practical purpose it would serve. Others see value in the underlying technology. The active aerodynamics and traction system could find uses in more ordinary vehicles. For now, the Roadster is a demonstration, a reservation page, and a promise. Whether it becomes something students could someday buy or stays a stunt will not be clear until at least 2028.
Sources: CBS News, CNBC, Axios, NBC News, Euronews.