There is zero chance that “feature” will ever see public roads. The amount of compressed are needed for that would probably vaporize everyone within 50 feet in a minor accident.
I would actually be more comfortable if it did use propellant.
This was a publicity stunt and the only to only noteworthy thing is the vacuum downforce which also seems dumb when you consider it’ll be sucking up squirrels and random shit on public roads.
It’ll be a regular car with regular features. This stuff will be “2 years out” for the next 20z
"You know how our electric cars have giant batteries that sometimes burst into an unquenchable fireball that burns hot enough to melt metal? What if we add a bunch of highly compressed gas in cannisters around the frame!"
Also, can 1-3 seconds in the air even be considered as "Flying" vs other machines?
For example:
The Kiity Hawk vs Tesla Roadster, what flyes more?
Kitty Hawk wins by a wide margin in actual sustained atmospheric flight—whether comparing the 1903 Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk or the modern Kitty Hawk eVTOL aircraft against the newly demonstrated Tesla Roadster.
The only scenario where a Tesla Roadster "flies" farther is if you count Starman’s 2008 Roadster launched atop a Falcon Heavy in 2018, which is in a ballistic heliocentric orbit rather than achieving self-powered aerodynamic flight...so not exactly flying, more like falling forever.
Carbon fiber canisters. Like the submarine that imploded on itself. We car guys figured that out way back in the early 2000's. Carbon fiber intercooler pipes look cool until you hit boost.
It was a concept car, and idiots are just lapping up the bullshit. Every single generation of Corvette from the C3 to the C7 had a concept car alongside it that was mid-rear.
This is nothing more than a thought experiment, and will never see the roads.
We've had rocket packs since the 60s.
The one used in that James Bond film? Not a special effect, actual thing.
Nobody uses them for a reason.
Same for this car.
There isn't a zero chance, Elon was proud to admit how he was able to get road safety measures cut so that the cybertruck could get onto American streets, pretty much nowhere else, and with the current US we've got the cyberpunk without the cool robots and implants.
Road safety measures aren't what will stop this thing from going to market. Literally no insurance company in the country will insure this this, and that's what will stop this from going to market.
Cars that can jump traffic like that could never be safe enough to do that on a public road. They don’t even have FSD down. So regulators will either say this simply can’t operate on public roads or has so be disabled and air tank empty. There isn’t really anything comparable on CT from a public safety perspective. Not even close.
Unfortunately, from what I understand, they already have commercial pricing and branding. It's called the "SpaceX Thruster Upgrade Package" and it's $690,000 USD
I can also, guarantee that this will not see any sort of preventative regulatory oversight to keep this jumping car off the road until this administration is gone. Hopefully the midterms euthanize their mandate and we can finally go back go a little bit of normalcy around here.
Yeah, because any time Elon uses “69” or “420”, he’s being completely serious. 690k for what amounts to a parlor trick will cement this into the hall of automotive oddities. There won’t be more than a handful produced if any are actually sold. That will only make it harder to make them street legal.
States can also exercise discretion, just like they have with those little Kei pickup trucks.
All this amounts to is a PT Barnum style marketing stunt to get people talking about Tesla. And as you can see, it worked. Whatever they invested to do this, is dwarfed by the amount of discussion/attention this got. The usefulness of the feature ends there.
Also, calling this a “flying car” makes about as much sense as calling the General Lee a flying car.
Those of us who have worked in computer networking have heard of RFC 1925, which sums this up nicely:
“With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly overhead.”
It’s just the most literal example I’ve ever seen to decribe this dumb assed stunt.
Given what a pile of shit the CuckTruck was I can only imagine trying to use this. Two fire normally, one doesn't work, one blasts out all it's air instantly and you cartwheel into the fourth floor of an office before exploding.
To add on to this: Tesla isn't nearly the first company to use fan driven suction. The tech has been around since 1970, and McMurty Automotive were the first to use fan suction to hang upside down and drive their electric hypercar in April 2025.
Marqués on YouTube did a video on it with the info he has. That specific unit will not be sold to the public because for 1, it's stupidly loud. And two, yeah. It is not street legal. They will give them out to a few influencers and rich dudes. But as of now it's invite only. At least till Elon just pays off who ever he needs to pay off to make it street legal.
The vacuum tech was done by the McMurty Speirling last year, where the car was able to generate enough downforce to stick to the road upside down without driving forward.
If Tesla is actually taking deposits on cars on the promise of jump jets, it starts to feel like fraud. Or maybe a complicated method of money laundering.
And they literally followed it with some scientist/engineer guy saying it's an incredibly inefficient form of propulsion being used, and the "fuel" would probably last 6-8 seconds
From what I understand the ramp did the sucking not the car. There is however a real car already in production that can suck itself upside down, and can already do over 4gs in turns. Twice what this has claimed.
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u/AnybodyWannaPeanus 7h ago
There is zero chance that “feature” will ever see public roads. The amount of compressed are needed for that would probably vaporize everyone within 50 feet in a minor accident.
I would actually be more comfortable if it did use propellant.
This was a publicity stunt and the only to only noteworthy thing is the vacuum downforce which also seems dumb when you consider it’ll be sucking up squirrels and random shit on public roads.
It’ll be a regular car with regular features. This stuff will be “2 years out” for the next 20z