Musk unveils new Tesla Roadster that can fly like a rocket
Tesla chief Elon Musk presented the long-awaited Tesla Roadster at a livestreamed event on Thursday night. In the demonstration the car drove upside down and flipped in mid-air.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, head of electric carmaker Tesla, unveiled the long-awaited Tesla Roadster sports car at a livestreamed event on Thursday night. The company presents it as its most ambitious project so far, and it is now taking reservations.
During the show, the Roadster drove up a tall, curved ramp, travelled upside down, launched off the end, flipped in mid-air and landed safely on the ground. The audience cheered. "Well, it worked," Musk said. He told those present they could tell others they had seen it with their own eyes, to prove it was neither AI nor a simulation.
How it works
Lars Moravy, Tesla's vice president of vehicle engineering, explained that the underside of the car has a fan suction system that can pull up to 2 Gs, allowing the vehicle to drive upside down. The rest, he said, uses technology borrowed from SpaceX. Musk added that the car has altitude control thrusters and main thrusters at the rear, so it can essentially fly like a rocket. He joked that it was not necessarily a safety-optimised car.
Second demonstration and specifications
In a second demonstration, the Roadster drove up to a row of other Tesla vehicles, fired into the air and performed a "kickflip" over them. Another display showed it accelerating from 0 to 60 mph (about 97 km/h) in under one second. The Roadster is Tesla's only manually driven car.
According to Tesla, the car has a range of more than 300 miles (about 480 km) and a top speed of over 230 mph (about 370 km/h) in the Rocket version. Tesla's website lists three variants: Performance, Thrust and Rocket. The Rocket version is invite only.
