The line belongs to Peter Thiel. In his fund’s famous essay on the future, the PayPal co-founder and first outside investor in Facebook looked at what Silicon Valley had delivered and wrote: “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.” On Thursday night, October 15, Elon Musk — Thiel’s partner from the PayPal days — stood in front of a live crowd at a SpaceX test facility in McGregor, Texas, and referenced the line from the stage. “Flying cars are real,” he said.
Tesla’s redesigned Roadster then performed the demonstration. Held to a steep curved ramp by a fan suction system, the two-seat sports car drove up the ramp and travelled along it upside down. At the top it launched, rolled 180 degrees in the air on bursts from cold-gas thrusters, and landed on its wheels. In a second demonstration it leapt over a line of five parked Teslas — a Semi truck and a Cybertruck among them — and the same thrusters fired it from 0 to 60 mph in less than one second, 0.81 seconds on the event’s own screen.
Nobody was sitting in it. The stunt driving was remote-controlled, “to make sure we don’t kill anyone,” Musk told the crowd, and he was plain about the odds before it ran: “Success is not guaranteed. I mean that. It’ll probably work, but if it doesn’t work, we’re at a safe distance.” The car, he said, is “what happens when you have a collaboration with the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company” — Tesla’s engineers working with SpaceX on a system of ten thruster nozzles fed by ultra high-pressure air tanks. Musk said the crowd was there “to prove that it’s not AI.” Fact-checkers have since examined the footage; Snopes rated the stunt videos true.
Within hours, Musk posted his own clip of the stunt to X with the caption: “Turns out the future does have flying cars.” The post has been viewed more than 78 million times.
“Turns out the future does have flying cars”
Watch Musk’s own clip on X — 78 million viewsThree Roadsters
Performance — the road car. Two seats, suction fans and active aerodynamics, no thrusters. Tesla claims 0–60 in under 1.6 seconds. $50,000 to reserve.
Thrust — adds rear thrusters and a 200-liter nitrogen tank for a harder launch: under 0.9 seconds to 60, Tesla says. $250,000 to reserve.
Rocket — the flying one. One seat, ten thrusters all around, a second tank where the passenger would sit. Invitation only, under 0.59 seconds claimed — and not approved for public roads.
Those reservation figures are deposits, not prices. Tesla announced no final price at the event.
The fine print. What flew in Texas hops — it does not cruise. Musk himself told CNN: “We’re not talking about sustained flight. We are literally talking about hopping.” The air in the tanks lasts seconds per fill. The aviation regulator’s position, as reported, is that the car does not meet the FAA’s definition of an aircraft. Every performance number so far is Tesla’s own, shown on Tesla’s screen, in a car nobody independent has tested. The Roadster was first revealed in 2017 with deliveries promised for 2020, four seats, 620 miles of range and a $200,000 base price. The car shown Thursday has two seats, a claimed range above 300 miles, and production now targeted for 2028 — after this year’s demo itself was postponed more than once. Musk also said the prototype is “not necessarily a safety optimised car,” though it “takes the Fun Meter to 11 out of 10,” and that he is “not sure it’s necessarily legal in all jurisdictions.”
What was demonstrated in McGregor was a prototype, driven by remote control, that drove upside down, left the ground on thruster bursts, rolled in the air, and landed on its wheels. By Musk’s own description, it hops; it does not sustain flight.
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