r/TeslaLounge • u/breedabol • 23h ago
When people cannot match your progress or compete with your vision, their only remaining defense is to devalue your success.
Words can't even describe how proud I am of Elon and the teams at SpaceX and Tesla. 😭
You’re not cool for acting unimpressed. It’s totally cool to be excited about something extraordinary!
“We got flying cars in 2026”
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u/Witty_Introduction38 New to the sub 18h ago
Musk’s automotive career started with the original Tesla Roadster between 2004 and 2008. Back then, the company took 100% upfront payments of $100,000 from early buyers, burned through that cash patching up engineering flaws, and by 2008 stood on the brink of bankruptcy without delivering a single car on schedule, though they eventually made it to the assembly line and shipped around 2,450 units.
The second-generation Roadster, on the other hand, is the exact definition of taking the money and delivering nothing. In 2017, Musk collected $50,000 deposits and full $250,000 prepayments on a promise to launch the car in 2020.
Nine years and at least six delays later, buyers still haven't received a single vehicle. Instead, at its October 2026 reveal in Texas, Tesla showed off a redesigned two-seat prototype with SpaceX gas thrusters, gave no final price, and pushed production back yet again now to 2028.
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u/Popular_Broccoli133 New to the sub 17h ago
And yet, people still put deposits down. Gee I wonder why?
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u/Unfair-Mail-7490 New to the sub 22h ago
So Tesla has built several preproduction roadsters. A lot of the tech he showcased here won't be in the average roadster he sells, and might not be incorporated into the final design due to Govt regulations
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u/nickerbocker79 New to the sub 21h ago
The only way the NTSB approves this for the road is of he makes a donation to the "ballroom".
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u/screenslaver5963 New to the sub 20h ago
He could get the public’s approval by launching the ballroom into the sun
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u/Own_Reaction9442 17h ago
I'd settle for launching it into Jupiter, which is more efficient in terms of delta-V.
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u/__JustPeople__ 23h ago
Geez. Chill. It's just a Trillionaire playing with his hot wheels.
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u/Present_Delivery6595 New to the sub 22h ago
i liked when Elon got busted pretending to be the worlds best gamer
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u/ragoff New to the sub 17h ago
What success? A publicity gimmick presented as a product demo? No one besides his 10 billionaire bros is interested.
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u/girthyclock New to the sub 21h ago
Jesus the glazing is getting out of hand. None of you will be driving this car or see it on the road. I guarantee the first person who gets rocket mode will die trying this stupid stunt.
You trust this car to fly when the company can’t even fix the fucking windshield washers?
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u/souptobolts New to the sub 22h ago
The drastic reduction in visual appeal of the new roadster compared to the original concept car is astonishing. I swear they’re doing the cool flip kick trick to shiny hand the masses.
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u/agk23 22h ago
This might be the cringiest post I’ve ever seen.
People don’t hate Elon because of his success, they hate him because he is a legitimately terrible human being. His government antics alone has killed, and will continue to kill for generations, countless impoverished people - and for nothing besides his own ego.
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u/NoCommonDog New to the sub 20h ago
Are you contractually obligated to say this ?
Blink twice if you're being held against your will.
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u/Narezza 20h ago
People act like they're going to be driving this car. This, at best, is a concept car. Its a tech demo. It is not going to be something you can drive. Its a Hype machine.
It IS a great prelude to the SPCX/TSLA merger.
And it was neat, but worthless as something that can advance the company, or any of our cars. This is not the direction that the company needs to move.
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u/PixelSchnitzel New to the sub 18h ago
I agree with your sentiment. It's also possible this will have the effect of generating excitement about the technology by showing its use in an extreme scenario. I can see people getting excited to buy a car that has 'active thrusters' that help cornering and acceleration, and fans that increase traction because 'its the same tech that lets you drive upside down and jump over cars' - even though it will be the equivalent of cars from the '50s putting fins everywhere because 'its like that rocket that went into space'
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u/Right-Advertising481 New to the sub 15h ago
maybe you should just appreciate the 0 - 60 in under 2 seconds, on the base model
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u/BrainJaxx New to the sub 3h ago
I think the hate has more to do with the whole white supremacy, robber baron, gutting aid services thing. Not so much the tech.
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u/middleofthemap New to the sub 21h ago
The fact they haven't delivered a single roadster in 10 years should be embarrassing. Elon moving the goal post for the simps again.
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u/adashthecash New to the sub 12h ago
Yeah this subreddit is significantly more bum-licky than I had anticipated. Thought the brainless support mentality was just exaggerated but here we are.
You think you’ll see these cars doing flips on the road whilst waiting at red lights soon?
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u/breedabol 12h ago
That’s never the point a Bugatti Chiron doesn’t go 300mph on the highway even tho it can
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u/breedabol 2h ago
People buy jeeps and broncos to drive around because they are genuinely cool cars not because they need to off road everyday
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u/zintel51 22h ago edited 21h ago
It despises me I despise when people say they are proud of someone as if they had any part in their success
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u/PopeDaveTwitch New to the sub 22h ago
Is it wrong to be proud of someone’s accomplishments regardless if you had any part in it? I think you’re being rather harsh towards OP.
When you succeed at something in life and someone compliments you on your success, do you reply with the same line? I doubt it.
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u/less_is_less 22h ago
Unless you are talking about a thing that hates you I don’t think you can start a sentence with “It despises me”.
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u/Popular_Broccoli133 New to the sub 17h ago
There is a difference between the fatherly 'I'm proud of you son' as if sanctioning the performance or success. But there is a very different "I see your struggles and am impressed and proud of you, as one human who understands the work you must have put in to achieve this to another." It's a pride in oneself because of the potential demonstrated by another. It's a humble position, not a condescending one.
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u/electricshadow 3h ago
Holy cringe with that title, OP. Elon’s not going to give you a ride in one no matter how much you glaze him and I say this as a Tesla owner since 2019.
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u/breedabol 2h ago
I don’t want a ride I want to make sure the future happens in my lifetime just seeing it is already enough
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u/breedabol 2h ago
Just because you own a Tesla doesn’t mean acting nonchalant after seeing a Tesla fly makes you look cool!
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u/PuffinChaos 21h ago
It’s a little weird being so proud of what amounts to a very expensive party trick
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u/StreetSmartsGaming New to the sub 22h ago
Tesla subs really exemplify the usage of bots in smear campaigns and propaganda today. The level of participation in subs people claim to not be interested in/hate is comical.
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u/Miserable_Poet1460 New to the sub 12h ago
I absolutely agree. Billionaires using bots to boost their greedy interests in social media is the propaganda channel of our time.
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u/TheMadolche 20h ago
It's impressive indeed. But who cares?
People literally are having issues living day to day.
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u/Potential_Refuse6255 12h ago edited 11h ago
That is their problem and responsibility. There are kind people who want to help which is good, but attempts to virtue signal and emotionally browbeat others and forcing them to help should be met with the fullest resistance.
Also, most people who are having financial problems consistently make poor financial decisions.
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u/VincentAXM New to the sub 11h ago
think about it in a causal way, they are in poor financial situation because they made poor decisions to begin with. Sorry but that's just life
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u/seenhear 21h ago
Very cool trick. Not proud of Elon at all. I'm ashamed of Elon. He's an embarrassment to humanity. The engineers and technicians working at Tesla and SpaceX? Very proud of them. Elon can go pound sand though. He's not necessary anymore. Fire his ass.
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u/Available-Reward7722 New to the sub 20h ago
Fuck Elon Musk. The car is kinda cool though, but fuck Elon Musk regardless.
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u/raidmytombBB New to the sub 18h ago
I have no issues if tesla wants to make a flying car. But a car that does flips to 'fly' is not practical by any means
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u/anthoj New to the sub 17h ago
The flipping is just the gimmick. The shipped version will probably just jump/small hop. At most it does it hover a few inches off the ground.
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u/coltonbyu New to the sub 17h ago
The shipped version probably won't even be able to lift off the ground. This thing was probably nothing but air tanks inside
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u/BlueShift42 13h ago
The shipped version will do none of that. It was a PR stunt. A cool one. But it’s not the car they’re selling.
As for me… i liked the original roadster design better and ultimately just want another Model X or S.
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u/SaltPhilosopher898 New to the sub 14h ago
What do you mean the shipped version?
This is not a car. This is a box filled with thrusters and sensors. There isn't even a seat in it.
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u/Own_Reaction9442 22h ago
Is this even legal? It's too heavy to count as an ultralight aircraft.
The odds that someone takes off and stuffs this into the roof of their house (or someone else's house), or lands it on top of a pedestrian, within a week of buying it seem high.
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u/Accomplished_Box_145 New to the sub 20h ago
It was obviously an innovative demonstration. They put on a show. But what matters to me is the vehicle design and the practicality of what was on display. Thrusters aren’t coming with the car and I personally thought the roadster was a letdown esthetically. Also, please stop saying that the car flew. Have y’all ever seen a plane?
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u/Fair-Craft8059 New to the sub 19h ago
I thought the elon bots were dead
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u/breedabol 19h ago
What do you mean his robots aren’t even out yet they are remote controlled and can only serve popcorn and shoot the shit.
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u/LandoDupree New to the sub 18h ago
This is almost as impressive as the people who have been living un a colony on Mars for 2 years!
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u/Top-Researcher-1107 New to the sub 17h ago
This was all just for marketing, don’t you get it?
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u/EveningCandle862 New to the sub 13h ago
It was a cool trick but it ends there, will never get anywhere near a production car.
Words can't even describe how proud I am of Elon and the teams at SpaceX and Tesla
Pathetic, they don't even know you exist. Stop being weird.
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u/Serious_Income_7020 New to the sub 22h ago
Or, it’s ok to not be impressed by something.
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u/spin_kick 22h ago
how can people be so cynical to not at least find this a cool engineering achievement? People are not impressed because insane things are happening so often. The work that went into this was probably slightly non-trivial
Like, ask your average human to construct even a panel that goes on the body of that car. People arent impressed because its as close to magic as anything else might be, and have zero clues on the work involved or the achievements that lead up to knowing how to do it, let alone make it look so easy that you arent impressed.
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u/Lucaslouch 21h ago
it’s impressive. it’s a wonderful piece of engineering.
but it’s useless and i’d rather have an affordable model 2 (with steering wheel)
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u/jessejericho New to the sub 18h ago
Why not put laser blasters on a snake and train it to make espresso? Would that be impressive to you? It's just as useless and stupid as whatever this nonsense was.
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u/Slow-Grapefruit8380 New to the sub 21h ago
Tell em bro, I still can't get enough of the roadster 1
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u/MGB_Roadster New to the sub 2h ago
This was a publicity stunt, no way a production weight vehicle would be doing those tricks. Elon knows we will never see a private owned Roadster with any of that capability. Elon has also already stated it won’t be available in all jurisdictions due to laws and regulations. So he can hide behind the regulations and just say if it was allowed you’d have it.
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u/Sea_Local2557 New to the sub 1h ago
the difference between putting the thrusters on a sack of potatoes and the car frame said to be a prototype for the new roadster is that you can buy potatoes but the new roadster will never see production
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u/Snoo-89191 New to the sub 38m ago
Is OP Elon?! Title reads exactly like what a 12 year old would think is profound.
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u/Ulrich453 New to the sub 21h ago
Impressive, but a useless feat. Cannot be actually used in public. It’s more of a show boat type ordeal. Still cool. But Elon was merely a spokesperson here. His ridiculous idea sure. Not his engineering work. And I’m sure his engineers are wondering… how do we scale this? Well it can’t be done.
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u/FrostyFire 20h ago
No shit, it’s a marketing vehicle. The entire world is talking about it.
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u/USA_Ultra New to the sub 20h ago
I’m sure the vehicle is 90% tanks over battery. Not a good daily driver.
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u/coltonbyu New to the sub 17h ago
That's why they will probably only make like 10
And they won't be capable of what was done at the show. Id put money there wasn't even a battery pack or interior in there. Just tanks and weight savings
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u/TheJuiceBoxS 22h ago
The trick is cool, but it also is a demonstration of a waste of time. Being proud of him is weird
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u/SinCityFC New to the sub 11h ago
The presentation was cool and just for show. The looks though? Looks like a habdmedown lambo.
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u/JWST-L2 New to the sub 7h ago
It reminded me of an Isdera Imperator 108i which is a potato from the 80s or 90s or something. Theres videos of them driving on track.
And on a completely unrelated note, the Isdera Commendatore 112i is one of the most beautiful cars ever
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u/CopperBlitter 5h ago
I probably like the aesthetics BECAUSE it looks like something from the 1980s. Thanks for the Isdera links. Cool cars.
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u/JWST-L2 New to the sub 5h ago
No problem :) I'm pretty sure one or two of them was in the Need for Speed 2 special edition which is a 1998 game I grew up with. There was no youtube or anything back then, but they took the time to get real video and photos of all of these expensive super supercars (like the McLaren F1) and it was great
Edit: and I suppose to tie it all back together, Elon used to own an F1 lol
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u/SexyAdmixture 22h ago
Don't ever, for any reason, do anything, to anyone, for any reason, ever, no matter what, no matter where, or who, or who you are with, or where you are going, or where you've been, ever, for any reason whatsoever.
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u/No-Direction8951 New to the sub 22h ago
I never care about super cars. I do now. This one is so epic.
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u/Healthy-Ad5423 New to the sub 20h ago
I hate it when Im unable to jump over a static row of cars on the school run. Thank goodness this problem is now history.
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u/Hsensei New to the sub 19h ago
Some people will always claim to see the fleas in the circus
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u/breedabol 19h ago
What does this mean?
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u/Hsensei New to the sub 19h ago
A flea circus was a mechanical device. A miniature circus with moving trapeze etc. There were no fleas but whomever was presenting said there were. Children and the gullible would believe they saw the fleas that did not actually exist. Sorry if it was over your head
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u/kungfuninjajedi 19h ago
Guess you weren't one of them put down 250k down payment for the roadster.
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u/OneExhaustedFather_ 18h ago
For a road legal drivable roadster. This is a cool toy, but it’s not likely in this configuration or any that allow it to leave the ground would it ever be deemed street or even track legal. It’s something but it’s not what people paid for.
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u/JBallMan23 New to the sub 16h ago
It’s cool, but does it actually solve a problem. Will I even be able to buy it. Again a concept product is a concept. They look fun and it’s cool engineering, but that’s it
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u/cdurbin909 5h ago
Y'all are insufferable. Does a Lamborghini solve a problem? No, it's just fun. Does a Ferrari solve a problem? No, it's fun.
Why do y'all think this car is supposed to be practical?
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u/FrequentLine1437 12h ago
sorry this post is cringe AF. this is notihng more than a marketing stunt, a technological dog and pony show.
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u/MissAmberR New to the sub 8h ago
But it’s kind of pointless , I like the design , looks like an old lotus esprit with the 70s/80s supercar wedge look, but if you want to have a passenger you only get one 4 to 5 second boost and then it takes 2 hours to refill , and if you want to do the jumpy spinny thing you are reduced to a single seat and cabin as you have a massive pressure vessel in the cabin with you. It all seems a bit pointless just get rid of the gimmicks and produce a good car.
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u/Ok_Giraffe8865 6h ago
Is fun pointless? I get that it is not going to be good for 99.9% of us, but the tech alone is fun and exciting to see. I think Musk knows all this, I'm just happy he is willing to "be stupid" and have fun.
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u/EluciveArtist New to the sub 5h ago
I believe that everyone thought that it was fun to some degree. But the issue is that the demo and “invite only” version of the car being the only thing that you talk about for a vehicle that has been expected for YEARS is a hint at hiding something. Whether it be another inevitable delay in production all the way to it being a stunt to make the public throw more money at him and his investors
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u/breedabol 2h ago
Lots of things are pointless there are plenty of cars that go over 100mph when it’s not even legal but acting like they didn’t produce multiple of the best cars in the world areas does not make you cool!! Everyone in this subreddit just wants to act nonchalant and unimpressed
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u/Dino_Spaceman New to the sub 21h ago
It is a very impressive trick. But will it ever be sold to the public (in the flying model version) is a question.
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u/TangoBravoOscar New to the sub 21h ago
Was this not like an RC car ? Lmao
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u/breedabol 19h ago
It is a preprogrammed rc car it’s too risky to put a human in there just to test it
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u/ClevelandBeemer New to the sub 18h ago
Very cool demo. The rocket tech is completely pointless though.
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u/SeaUrchinSalad 18h ago
Wait... Why's it called roadster if it's whole thing is being not on the road?
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u/Legitimate_Craft_580 New to the sub 16h ago
And that is 100% not relevant here. All they have to do is make a better care and autopilot. The end. Flying cars with compressed air is cool for a show but completely useless for consumers. Good on the Tesla and spacex engineers. The latter of which have been doing it with landers for years now.
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u/AdelMonCatcher 16h ago
Excellent marketing, but nothing says progress like fulfilled purchase orders
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u/mavadavialcul New to the sub 16h ago edited 16h ago
Is this demo cool? Yeah undoubtedly.
Is this a technical feat? Yes. While the technologies used aren't nothing new in the aerospace/military industries, nobody ever used thrusters and fans with that kind of power and capabilities in a car, so it's an interesting application.
Does this have any impact on car making and general transportation? No, exactly nothing of what was shown here will ever be road legal. If they actually produce it it'll be a toy for billionaires, but my opinion is that it'll be weaponized for military vehicles.
Does this justify the huge delay and constant changing specifications and features of the roadster that follows whatever Elon thinks it's cool in that moment? Hell no.
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u/bittabet 15h ago
It is very cool but the thing is that the roadster was originally announced in 2017 with a 620 mile range and now the base version of the car will have half that range and the “flying version” is an invite only purchase that’s likely not street legal.
It’s an incredible tech demo but honestly the original 2nd gen roadster with massive range would have been very cool if they had delivered it in a normal timeframe
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u/Groundhawgday New to the sub 15h ago
10,000 psi in the passenger seat. What could possibly go wrong?
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u/drifters_way New to the sub 15h ago
This whole roadster business is just another way for Musk to borrow money at 0%
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u/RealDonDenito 14h ago
The tech is obviously amazing. But it is also obviously useless, sorry. The market would have loved to see the cheaper car, whatever it may be called. Or an insane battery that enters mass production. If Tesla finally draws even with BYD again on charging speeds while maintaining their supercharger network and can at some point deliver a small and affordable car… that would actually increase deliveries. Pair it with an actually functional FSD, and you got yourselves a market.
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u/Skrumbles New to the sub 14h ago
Great. So, to sum up, he did a slightly better version of this with just one car instead of many, and no actual drivers or riders. Congrats, Elon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights,_Motors,_Action!:_Extreme_Stunt_Show
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u/Single_Turnover_2301 13h ago
Been noticing our opinion of calling this a gimmick is aggressively being downvoted. Wouldn’t be surprised if Elon got bots on here now.
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u/ConnectionBasic9468 New to the sub 13h ago
What success? It's basically a large scale RC toy. It's not going to be produced. If they make a road legal, road ready version I'll tip my hat off to them. Until that time, I'm not going to be ass kissing them like these Tesla simps are for letting them gaslight me with scale sized Hot wheels toys. Ridiculous post.
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u/Johnwheelright New to the sub 13h ago
Let them eat cake of the tech bro world. Pointless stupid flex. These bots got to go. None cares about this stupid repurposing of decades old tech and retro future 80s design.
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u/keepcalmandmoomore New to the sub 13h ago
I find it hard to enjoy the technological progress while Elon is behaving like a moron.
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u/Ambitious-Code9 New to the sub 12h ago
who the f wants a car with compressed canister aka a bomb, next to them
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u/OptimalToucan New to the sub 12h ago
Being proud of something that you have not accomplished anything about except being a fan is so weird to me. It's cool, it's very impressive, but in the end it's a tech demo that has no real life value.
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u/pt-target New to the sub 10h ago
He has a great engineering team, but he definitely needs to hire better car designers. Roadster 2.0 was way better looking
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u/Whit3boy316 9h ago
I’m I the only person who sees this as a gimmick? Not to mention the roadster was announced 9 years ago….
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u/altoona_sprock New to the sub 8h ago
The Roadster is a prestige product. Even the base model is well above what most consumers can spend, and the more advanced models will be much higher than the $250,000 base price that's been touted.
A "flying" vehicle is perfect for an event like this. You don't want to show how many grocery bags will fit in it, you want a wow factor. Everyone thinks it's cool, because it is, but most of us probably realize it's a gimmick, but one has to understand that this type of showy demonstration generates buzz.
My issue with the "flying" car is that it doesn't solve a problem. EVs solve the problem of pollution and reliance on unreliable foreign sources for fuel. Tesla solved the problem of making them actually useful by adding longer range and the supercharger network. SpaceX building reusable boosters and recovering them by landing instead of splashdown solves a huge problem in cutting down the time and expense of future launches. I'm not sure what actual use people will have for the "flying" Roadster, but what it may inspire could be incredible.
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u/cypherblock New to the sub 8h ago
Honestly the whole thing was so mind blowing that I do think it’s fairly normal to be like What was that??? And so it does naturally lead to questions about whether it was real or a stunt or what.
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u/Agile_Type_9684 New to the sub 8h ago
Is this a success? Continuing ripping off people after 10 years with no car in production?
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u/DieSackgasse 23h ago
I love my Model 3.. but are you guys not a little overhyped? lol.. You talk like Elon is your Kid.