Tesla reveals the new Roadster, and the top version can lift off the ground

Tesla held the event on Thursday at SpaceX's rocket test site in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. Elon Musk called the car "the best of the last of the human-driven cars," TechCrunch reports.

The show was all stunts. Engadget describes the car driving up a C-shaped ramp and stopping on the vertical part while hanging upside down. Then it jumped off the top, flipped, and its thrusters kicked in so it could ease itself down to the ground.

• The kickflip: TechCrunch says the car used its thrusters to lift itself over a Cybercab, a Cybertruck, a Tesla Semi, a Model Y and a Model 3 while moving.
• The driver: When the door opened, an Optimus robot was in the seat. Engadget notes it was only for show, and the stunts were programmed into the car.
• The flight: Wired says the Roadster flew a few dozen feet in an awkward, jerking move, with no human inside "to make sure we don't kill anyone," as Musk put it.

After the car lifted off, Musk declared, "Flying cars are real," Drive Tesla reports. He also said Tesla may try to jump Snake River Canyon, the gorge Evel Knievel famously tried to cross in a steam-powered rocket.

Tesla will sell the Roadster in three trims. Each one adds more hardware borrowed from rockets. All of them, Tesla says, get more than 300 miles of range and a top speed above 230 mph.

Tesla calls Performance "road ready," Thrust "race ready" and Rocket "air ready," according to TechCrunch. The acceleration figures come from Drive Tesla's report of Tesla's specs.

For comparison, the 2017 Roadster was promised with 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds and 620 miles of range. The new one trades some of that range for a much bigger party trick.

Two separate systems do two separate jobs.

The suction system keeps the car glued down. On its website, Tesla says a multi-mode fan and ground sealing system pulls air out from under the car, Engadget reports. That works like a giant vacuum cleaner turned upside down: it creates enough downforce to hold the car on an inverted ramp, even when it's standing still.

The thrusters push it up and steer it in the air. Tesla engineering VP Lars Moravy said the Roadster uses 10 thrusters connected to 600 liters of compressed air, TechCrunch reports, and the tank can be recharged.

• No fuel burns: Drive Tesla notes the system runs on compressed air in carbon fiber pressure vessels, not rocket fuel.
• Fast control: Engadget says the thrusters use all-electric actuators that make "micro adjustments within a fraction of a second."
• Packed tight: "Every usable void in the car is packed with Carbon Fiber Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs)," Tesla wrote in a post on X.

In real life Think of a can of compressed air for cleaning a keyboard. Press the button and it pushes back on your hand. Now picture ten much bigger ones, aimed at the ground, under a sports car.

Short answer: nobody knows yet. Tesla hasn't named a final price. What it has named is the reservation.

• Performance: $50,000. Engadget reports it's $5,000 to reserve, then $45,000 within 10 days.
• Thrust: $250,000. Engadget says buyers pay an extra $245,000 within 10 days of reserving.
• Rocket: invite only, with no deposit listed.
• Canada: Drive Tesla reports reservations of $70,000 for Performance and $350,000 for Thrust.

The catch: These are reservation amounts, not prices. Musk also said he's "not sure it moves the needle massively from a revenue standpoint," TechCrunch reports. In other words, this is a halo car: the one that makes people look at the rest of the lineup.

Tesla first showed the second-generation Roadster as a surprise at the end of the Tesla Semi reveal in 2017. It took $50,000 deposits back then, and some buyers paid $250,000 for one of 1,000 Founders Series cars, according to TechCrunch.

Then other projects came first.

• 2018: Musk wrote that a "SpaceX option package" would add about 10 small rocket thrusters. The same year, Tesla went through what he called "production hell" on the Model 3.
• 2020 to 2024: Musk delayed the Roadster in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024, TechCrunch reports, as Tesla focused on the Model Y and the Cybertruck.
• Late 2025: Musk said he wanted to reveal it by the end of 2025, then moved the date to April 1, 2026.
• October 1, 2026: Tesla tried again, but severe weather forced one more delay.
• October 15, 2026: The reveal finally happened, almost nine years to the day after the first one.

You can see the earlier context in our story on Tesla's third-quarter deliveries, which noted the October 15 date.

The design changed a lot since 2017. TechCrunch describes the new car, shown in white, as more angular, closer to a Lamborghini or the Lotus Esprit from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. Musk owns that Lotus, and it was on display at the event.

Tesla said in a post that the design took cues from the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft and the F-35 fighter jet. "Our design language has evolved since the last reveal: from S3XY to Cybertruck, Cybercab & Optimus," the company wrote.

"This is the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX Engineers working closely together to make something you haven't seen in any movie, better than any James Bond car," Musk said at the event.

Not easily. Why it matters: a car that leaves the road enters a world of aviation rules, and those move slowly.

"The [Federal Aviation Administration] has jurisdiction over any machine that leaves the surface of the earth," Scott Miller, an airline pilot and San José State University aviation lecturer, told Wired. Musk said as much himself: "I'm not sure it's necessarily legal in all jurisdictions."

Here's what experts told Wired:

• Weight: Any flying vehicle over about 250 pounds needs FAA approval and clearance to use national airspace, says Michael McCormick, a former FAA official now at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
• Time: He predicts certification could take "at least a year."
• License: A driver's license won't cover it. Owners would likely need a recreational pilot's license.
• Takeoff spots: Most states require aircraft to take off from airports or helipads, so flying might only work on large private land.

Drive Tesla notes the Rocket trim is not approved for public road use, so the flying version is, for now, a private-property toy.

Miller added that flying cars have always struggled because weight keeps a car safe, while "weight is the enemy of an airplane." Still, he was impressed: "If this does make it into production, that is a truly impressive engineering and production feat."

Musk was also clear that this isn't a family car. "This is not necessarily a safety-optimized car," he said at the event, according to Wired.

• If you only want to watch: The base car seats two and is the "road ready" one. The thrusters, the suction system and the flying all cost extra.
• If you want one: Plan on $50,000 just to get in line for the base car, and expect the final price to be higher.
• If you want the flying one: Rocket is invite only, seats one, and needs aviation approvals before it can leave private land.
• If you're waiting for flying cars in general: The FAA is still writing rules for electric air taxis, Wired notes, so everyday flying cars are still years away.