Cars Can Fly Now? Tesla’s Roadster Shocks the World

On October 15, Tesla unveiled its redesigned Roadster, an electric sports car featuring technology that allows it to perform aerial stunts. They coined it as “The Last Best Driver’s Car” on the title of their initial showcase. At first, people simply thought of it as a new variation of the previous models such as the Model S, Model Y, Model 3, or the Model Cybertruck. However, what the general public did not expect was for the car to have gas thrusters from SpaceX on it, effectively giving it the power to fly. 

During the demonstration, the Roadster performed several surprising stunts. Because the car’s innovative engine upgrades now allowed it to drive up a slanted wall nearly upside down, hit a kick-flip, and safely land. It also allows it to hurdle 5 cars in one flight. Sports cars that are built for this type of activity can only accelerate to 60mph in a little under three seconds, but the roadster completely smashed through that record, accelerating from 0 to 60 in 0.81 seconds. For reference, the world’s fastest vehicular acceleration from the “mythen” electric race car built by students from the Swiss student organization AMZ Racing accelerates from 0mph to 62 mph in 0.956s. 

But even with the car’s record setting and history-making capabilities, many questions remain.

For starters, how will a flying car be able to be road certified? With the flight feature, could it potentially crash into road signs or interstate signs? If a collision occurred between the roadster and any other more traditional car, where the Tesla roadster simply falls on a car from above, wouldn’t it be instantaneously fatal? No car is designed to be able to monitor traffic or other vehicles coming from above, so could even the best/most safe drivers be able to avoid such a collision?

Additionally, how are authorities supposed to be able to subjugate such a vehicle? The police vehicles cannot fly, and if they had to chase down such a vehicle with a helicopter, wouldn’t it be very logistically difficult and also more dangerous than any high speed chase? So realistically, if an innovation like this were released to the public, how would road safety be mandated? How much would it cost—is it something only the upper class can afford? Will this new innovation actually advance all of society, or will it only benefit a specific demographic of people? A majority of these questions remain unanswered by Tesla as of now, as we wait for responses from Mr. Musk and Tesla.