POV Video Shows What It's Like To 'Fly' In Tesla's New 'Roadster'
New onboard footage shows the vehicle launching, flipping upside down, and landing during Tesla's wild demonstration.
The Tesla Roadster took to the air like a leaf on the wind. It was an impressive stunt that got the whole world talking. Now, regardless of how you feel about the legitimacy of what was shown, there's no denying that something flipped, kind of flew, and drove upside down.
And if you were curious what that would look like from on board the vehicle, Tesla has got you covered. The car company that's not a car company has released multiple angles of the various stunts performed at its event.
The uncrewed demonstration has certainly garnered a lot of interest and a healthy dose of skepticism. Take a look at the action for yourself and see where you fall on that spectrum.
2028 Tesla Roadster
The 'Flying Roadster'
In order to fly through the air, or rather safely fall to the ground, the Tesla Roadster relies on a cold-gas thruster system. It's a high-pressure nitrogen setup that can reach up to 10,000 psi. That's a tremendous amount of potential energy sitting just behind the driver.
There's a 200-liter tank that requires a fill-up time between two and six hours. Tesla, however, hopes to get that time down to just under half an hour. Where and how you'll refill your tank has yet to be determined, but Tesla has some time to try and figure that out.
Tesla is aiming for some time in 2028 as the production start date. The base Performance model eschews the cold-gas thruster system. Thrust adds, well, thrusters to the rear to enable sub-two-second 0-60 launches. And Rocket will be the single-seat kickflip mobile, which would likely never be street-legal even if Tesla manages to build one.
As it stands today, the cold-gas-packing Tesla Roadster remains a prototype and nothing more. The standard Performance model should make its way to production, but any version that shoots blasts of nitrogen out the back, bottom, or sides will likely remain outside the realm of practicality, possibility, and legality.
The "car" does make for great subject matter for TikTok comedians, though:
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Source: Tesla / YouTube
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