You won’t be the only one thinking what Tesla unveiled today is an AI powered video. That is just how cool it was. Elon Musk’s EV maker finally took the wraps off its second-generation Roadster on Thursday night at a SpaceX test facility near Waco, Texas. However, what led to gasps and excitement was this demonstration built around the car briefly leaving the ground and landing back, thanks to its SpaceX powered thrusters.
In one run, the two-seat prototype drove up a curved ramp, held itself upside down near the top using an underbody suction system, then fired a set of thrusters to launch off the ramp, flip in midair, and land back on the pavement. In a second demonstration, the car accelerated from a standstill and launched over a lineup of parked Tesla vehicles, including a Cybercab, Cybertruck, Semi, Model Y and Model 3, flipping before it touched down on the other side.
Real life, baby https://t.co/3QEqn18wig
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 16, 2026
The thrusters are the product of a collaboration with SpaceX, and Tesla was specific about what they aren’t: rocket engines in the combustion sense. Vehicle engineering VP Lars Moravy said the system uses 10 thrusters fed by roughly 600 liters of compressed air, capable of producing more than 80 kilonewtons of thrust, with tanks that recharge without needing fuel. Tesla said the pressure vessels packed into the car’s body are the same carbon-fiber-overwrapped design SpaceX uses on its rockets. On stage, Elon Musk called the moment proof that “the future does have flying cars,” while Moravy put it more simply: “Flying cars are real.”
Three versions of the car are planned, and only one of them actually flies. The base Performance trim relies on aerodynamics and the suction system alone, with Tesla claiming a 0-60 mph time under 1.6 seconds and a $50,000 reservation deposit. The Thrust trim adds the rear cold-gas thrusters for added acceleration, cutting that time to under 0.9 seconds, with reservations reported at $250,000. At the top sits Rocket, a single-seat, invite-only version with additional thrusters positioned to actually lift the car off the ground and control it in the air — a configuration Tesla says will not be street-legal. Tesla has also claimed a top speed over 230 mph and more than 300 miles of range across the lineup, though none of those figures have been independently verified.
The spectacle sits on top of one of the longest-running promises in the car industry. Tesla first showed a prototype of this Roadster in November 2017 and began taking the same $50,000 and $250,000 deposits back then, with production originally targeted for 2020. That date came and went, and so did several that followed: Musk said last year he wanted to reveal the finished car by the end of 2025, then pushed that to April 1, 2026 a week later, then missed that date too. This event itself was originally scheduled for October 1 before Tesla delayed it two weeks over forecasts of severe weather at the outdoor test site. Production is now targeted for 2028, eleven years after the car was first shown to the public. Reservation holders who have waited since the original 2017 deposit, including early customers who called their hold on the car an effective “interest-free loan” to the company, are being asked to wait a while longer.
Tesla was careful about how the demonstration itself was run. Both maneuvers used a pre-programmed sequence rather than a human driver, and Musk acknowledged beforehand that “success is not guaranteed,” noting the car was tested at a safe distance from the crowd in case it wasn’t. The event took place under FAA flight restrictions, and Tesla hasn’t addressed whether the thruster system would be legal to use on public roads, a question that matters more for Thrust owners than for the Rocket trim, which isn’t meant for public roads at all.
Musk closed the event by teasing an even bigger demonstration to come: an attempt at recreating Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon jump. Given how long this particular car has taken to go from prototype to proof-of-concept, it’s reasonable to wait for a date before getting excited about that one too.