Last night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled a car that he claims can fly, followed by a short demonstration of its ability to go airborne — and it's hard to think of a Tesla vehicle that's sparked more online reaction since the Cybertruck.
The demonstration was held outside of a Texas SpaceX test facility, where Musk unveiled the car in front of a live audience. During that demonstration, Musk took to the stage, where he said, "We need an audience to prove it's not AI or SI, so you guys can tell people you saw it with your eyes," and that, "You're going to see the results of what happens when you have a collaboration between the world's best car company and the world's best rocket company."
When the flying Roadster was revealed, it was remotely piloted to "make sure we don't kill anyone." The demo started off with the car facing a steep ramp, where it used suction to drive and park upside down, before eventually zooming up the ramp, jumping off, using rockets to right itself and land safely.
Turns out the future does have flying cars https://t.co/6fexPp6SXI
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 16, 2026
The car uses thrusters from SpaceX in the rear of the vehicle and along the bottom to "basically fly like a rocket." Musk admitted this is "not necessarily a safety-optimized car," which is likely why, earlier in the event, he claimed that it would be "long-term the only manually driven car that Tesla makes." Musk added that this new Roadster would enter production in 2028, but with something like this, I'd expect a number of delays, if it ever makes it to the street at all.
Regardless, the car has been blowing people's minds. Christopher Lloyd, who famously played flying car driver Doc Brown in the Back to The Future movies, took to X / Twitter to say: "Finally...flying cars." Meanwhile, other folks, like user CARN0N tweeted out highlight reels of all the stunts that Tesla pulled off with the prototype rocket car. Some have even compared it to Rocket League.
Highlights of all four stunts Tesla showed off with the new Roadster today. https://t.co/chP6QEuVMk
— Oli (@CARN0N) October 16, 2026
"Rocket League is just a video game"
— Spawn Wave (@SpawnWaveMedia) October 16, 2026
Tesla engineers: https://t.co/iPzBNywL4p
There is a healthy dose of skepticism, of course. Tech influencer MKBHD tweeted out his disbelief, saying, "They really just got on stage and said this newly designed 4,000+ pound car can do flips and go half the speed of sound (380+mph) and will ship in 2028. This is a prank, right?"
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman was impressed, even if he was a bit skeptical, tweeting: "Hard to think of a wilder product unveiling. Not sure how quickly drivers are going to be leaping over each other in traffic, but damn, this was a cool way to introduce Roadster to the world."
Only time will tell if this new flying Roadster will ever actually see the light of day, or if it'll even be street legal in most places when it does. Musk sure seemed hopeful that Tesla would be able to get it out the door and into customer's hands in the next couple years, but really, we'll just have to wait and see.
Photo by FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images.