Elon Musk unveils flying car: Crowd screams as new Tesla with rocket thrusters takes off and flips mid-air

Elon Musk has presented a redesigned Tesla Roadster that uses rocket-style thrusters to lift, flip and hover in demonstrations at a Texas event. He said production is targeted for 2028 and described the vehicle as capable of dramatic manoeuvres, while cautioning that it is not necessarily safety-optimised.

The Roadster is being developed with SpaceX, according to the article, and Tesla claims it can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in about 0.81 seconds and reach 230 mph. Reservations listed on Tesla’s website require a refundable $50,000 deposit for a performance model, while a thrust version requires $250,000; an invite-only rocket configuration is described as flight-capable. The full price and whether some features would be legal on roads remain unclear.