Vroom, Vroom, Vroosh…?!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Tesla Car?! Are we finally catching up to Back to the Future? Nope, but it is pretty close, though we don’t have hoverboards yet.

SpaceX and Tesla founder, Elon Musk, has recently showcased its new electric vehicle, the Tesla Roadster, capable of flying for a short while and accelerating from 0 to 60 miles per hour in under one second.

The vehicle uses a fan suction system, which creates a low-pressure area around the fan’s center and sucks in 2 Gs of force, making the car able to flip upside down.

It also borrowed technology from SpaceX, namely its cold gas thrusters which are 10 high-pressure gas nozzles that blast compressed air so that it can do flips, hops, and jumps.

Four of the thrusters are at the rear and 2 are placed at the front, all of which are facing outwards, and there is also one on each corner facing downwards.

All of the thrusters help enable its ridiculous acceleration, which if done on an ordinary vehicle, would have resulted in the tires exploding due to the sheer amount of force being sent through the tires.

To demonstrate the Roadster’s capabilities, it performed a set of crazy gymnastics, as much as a car can do so.

It drove itself up a steep ramp, went upside down, launched off the end, flipped while in the air, and landed safely on the ground while still being unmanned.

According to Elon Musk, “It can do rolls; it can do crazy gymnastics.”

But it is not capable of sustained flight, only able to remain in the air for a short while using its thrusters.

There are also questions regarding the legality of using its flying capabilities on public roads.

Another problem is its prohibitively expensive cost, needing around a $50,000 reservation payment for the base model which is road-legal.

For the thrust model, which has the SpaceX thrusters, it requires a $250,000 total reservation payment.

And as for the Rocket Model, it has been classified as invite-only, and it is a single-seat version with a full flight system, currently unavailable to the public and no price has yet been confirmed.

When the car was first teased as a concept in 2017, its original price for the base model was  $200,000 and for a limited series was $250,000.

Yet despite the showcase the new vehicle has yet to come into production, being slated to be produced in 2028 due to needing approval from safety boards, additional developments, and engineering to make sure that it is safe for the roads.

So, it is going to be a long time until you see a car suddenly accelerating and doing flips in mid-air. Unless Tesla decides to unveil the car earlier, then all bets are off.