Elon Musk shows off ‘flying’ Tesla Roadster after years of delays

Elon Musk showed off the new Tesla Roadster prototype Thursday that can briefly launch itself into the air using rocket-inspired thrusters, nearly a decade after the electric sports car was first announced.

The stunt-filled demonstration offered a glimpse of Tesla’s ambitious plans for the long-delayed vehicle. But the company has yet to announce a price or release date, and Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said production would not begin until 2028 — eight years after the Roadster was originally expected to arrive.

At a SpaceX testing facility in Texas, Musk told the live audience they were there to prove what they were about to see “was not AI or SI.”

The vehicle, a collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX, then slowly drove up a curved ramp shaped like half of a rollercoaster loop before accelerating and launching itself off the ramp, hurdling over five other Tesla vehicles and bringing itself to a soft landing in a cloud of condensation using cold-gas thrusters.

“Well, it worked!” Musk said after the stunt, adding that “it’s not necessarily a safety-optimized car.”

Tesla says a fan-based suction system creates downforce to hold the vehicle against the road’s surface, while self-refilling cold-gas thrusters power its…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business