Tesla has unveiled its long-awaited sports car, the Roadster, which appears to hover above the ground, at SpaceX McGregor, Texas, during a livestream featuring Elon Musk, Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen and vehicle engineering Vice President Lars Moravy.
The event was less a car launch and more a spectacle of engineering; midair flips, rocket thrusters firing and acceleration claims sound closer to aerospace.
At the launch, Musk stated an ambitious collaboration between his companies, promising “some crazy stuff” in the near future. He added that SpaceX inspired cold gas thrusters for the Roadster since Tesla revealed the redesigned model in 2017.
“We need an audience to prove that it’s not AI or SI. So, you guys can tell people that you saw it with your eyes, because what you see with your eyes, you will not believe,” Musk said.
Moravy said the Roadster uses a “fan suction system” on the underside of the vehicle that can pull up to 2 Gs in order to make the car go upside down.
The Roadster can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under one second. It showed it can take three versions: performance, thrust and rocket model, with the rocket model is listed as invite- only.
It also has a range of more than 300 miles and a top speed of over 230 mph (rocket version), per Tesla.
The tech billionaire said the vehicle would go into production in 2028.
