New Delhi: Tesla Roadster has been promised for so long that it had started to feel like a running joke. On October 15, Tesla gave people something to look at instead.
During a livestream from SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas facility, the next-generation Roadster accelerated to 60 mph in 0.81 seconds, according to figures circulating from the event. That’s less than a blink and a half. It also jumped over other Teslas parked on the course and performed aerial stunts, including a kickflip, using cold-gas thrusters.
Tesla’s own account posted a clip afterward with the caption “Real life, baby.” The 45-second video shows the car’s rear end heading up a steep ramp, red lighting running down the edges. As of this writing it has about 24 million views, 383,000 likes and 71,000 reposts. More than 8,000 people replied, which tells you something about how divided the reaction is.
The thrusters are the part worth pausing on. Cold-gas systems push out compressed gas to move or rotate an object, and they’re a staple of spacecraft. Putting them on a road car is a SpaceX-meets-Tesla idea, and the McGregor location, a SpaceX site, fits that theme. Whether the stunt says anything about what customers will actually drive is another matter.
Tesla showed three trims. Performance comes with what’s described as suction handling, meant to keep the car planted to the road. Thrust is the version built for faster acceleration. Then there’s Rocket, which is invite-only and designed for short flights with room for one person. One seat, short flights. Read that twice.
Production is slated for 2028, and Tesla is taking $50,000 deposits. That timeline matters, because the Roadster was first unveiled in 2017 with a much earlier target date. Anyone who put money down years ago has reason to be wary of another one.
Some of the online reaction is pure awe. A lot of it asks the obvious question: who is this for, and where would they use any of it? A car that can leap over other cars and rotate in the air is a spectacle, but spectacle isn’t the same as a vehicle someone commutes in. Others pointed out that a controlled demo on a purpose-built course doesn’t tell you how the car behaves on an ordinary street, or how regulators would treat thruster-assisted flight.
Those are fair concerns, and Tesla hasn’t answered them yet. For now, what exists is a video, a set of performance claims, and a deposit page.
