At SpaceX's McGregor, Texas test site, a revamped Roadster carrying an integrated thruster system went on display as part of Tesla's latest electric vehicle development push. At a curved ramp, the vehicle became airborne, rotated through a full flip, and touched back down with the aid of thruster technology built by SpaceX.
During the same run, the vehicle executed a barrel roll across a row of Tesla products — among them the automaker's electric passenger cars, Semi Truck, and Cybertruck. A live audience attended the Texas demonstration at Musk's direction, with their presence intended to counter any suggestion that the footage had been digitally fabricated.
Pegged for a 2028 production launch, the updated Roadster is reported to cover the zero-to-100 km/h sprint in a single second — a figure that trims roughly three seconds off what the original version managed at its best. Manufacturing of the first-generation Roadster wrapped up when 2012 drew to a close.
At the event, Musk walked attendees through the propulsion setup, explaining that thrust comes from a stored compressed-air system — what he called an "advanced ultra-high pressure air tank" — channelled through ten nozzles and carrying a payload of around 250 kilograms of pressurised air. Musk stated that the tank's design allows it to replenish its charge on its own, with no propellant required. He described the Roadster's air tank as one that would inflate on demand, giving the vehicle the ability to carry out those manoeuvres at any chosen moment.
The vehicle draws on aerospace engineering principles, according to a technical assessment from Raman Technology, a logistics firm based in China, which found those aviation-derived systems embedded within its electric drivetrain architecture.
Production of the thruster-fitted Roadster is set to remain a limited run, with a road-legal variant absent from any announced plans. Rules governing vehicles that can take off and fly have yet to be clearly defined in most parts of the world, leaving operators and manufacturers without consistent guidance.
Aviation and road-transport rules drawn up by American regulators during the mid-2010s called for prospective flying-car operators to hold two distinct licences — one covering ground travel and another authorising flight. Klein Vision's flying car offers a telling example — the aircraft passed a formal airworthiness evaluation carried out by Slovak aviation authorities and received its official type certification in 2022. Following the announcement, the company clarified in a public statement that anyone intending to operate the vehicle would be required to hold a valid pilot's licence.
Musk noted uncertainty over whether the vehicle would meet legal requirements across every jurisdiction, while also indicating it was designed for use as a road-going car — a view echoed by David Thomas, Content Marketing Director at software firm CDK Global, who called it a notable engineering achievement. Thomas raised a practical concern about refuelling infrastructure, noting that convenient locations to fill up a vehicle running on that fuel remain unclear, and added that obtaining insurance coverage for it would face the same obstacles.
George Agathangelou — General Manager and Executive Director at Teroxx, a financial services firm based in Cyprus — raised a set of practical commercial questions about the technology, pressing on matters including whether pilots would need aviation-grade certification, how liability would be distributed among the various parties involved, and what framework of airspace rules would apply to such operations. To illustrate the insurance complications that might arise, Agathangelou offered a hypothetical in which a driver would find themselves in the position of explaining to an insurer that an incident stemmed from an attempt to travel over another vehicle rather than strike it from behind.
Other automakers had already ventured into aerial vehicle development before Tesla turned its attention to the space. Fan-driven downforce technology sat at the heart of the Speirling, an all-electric hypercar that McMurtry, a manufacturer based in Britain, put into production during 2021. Where Tesla's design stands apart, according to the available technical descriptions, is in pairing vacuum-based suction with independently powered thrusters working in tandem.
