Tesla's Flying Roadster: Seconds in the Air, Years to Market

Tesla unveiled its second-generation Roadster on Thursday 15 October 2026 at SpaceX's rocket test site in McGregor, Texas, which was Friday morning in Bangkok. On Tesla's livestream, a prototype with nobody inside climbed a curved ramp until it hung upside down, shot off the end, rolled half a turn in mid-air and landed on its wheels. A second run cleared five parked Teslas with a barrel roll. "Flying cars are real," Elon Musk told the crowd, according to CBS News.

It is a spectacular piece of engineering, and it is also a hop, not a flight. Tesla promises production in 2028 and has not announced a price. Here is what was shown, how it works, and why the money behind flying vehicles matters more than one sports car, including for Thailand.

What the cameras showed, and what they did not

NBC News put the second jump at about 8 metres (27 feet), a figure it attributed to Tesla; no other outlet repeated it. Dezeen said the car stayed up "a few seconds" and also lifted off from standing still. Nobody drove: Musk said he left the seat empty to avoid risk, and The Beep reported a mannequin behind the wheel. No flight from one place to another was shown.

Tesla's on-screen timer also showed the car reaching 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) in 0.81 seconds. Electrek reported a 1.0-second run and said the 0.81-second figure came on the live run after problems with the timer. All of these are Tesla's own numbers. No journalist was allowed to inspect the cars, and Electrek suspects different cars did different stunts.

How a car lifts off: compressed gas, not wings

The Roadster has no wings and no rotors. It uses cold-gas thrusters: nozzles that release gas stored under very high pressure, the same kind of small thruster SpaceX uses to steer rockets. Nothing burns. Think of a very large fire extinguisher pointed at the ground: a huge push, for a few seconds.

The gas sits in carbon-fibre tanks that Tesla fitted into "every usable void", TechCrunch reported; Electrek puts the storage pressure at 10,000 psi. The Thrust version has four rear nozzles and a 200-litre tank. The one-seat Rocket version has 10 nozzles and 600 litres in total, because a tank replaces the passenger seat, AutoGuide reported.

Four fans under the car suck it onto the road with "up to 2 Gs", engineering chief Lars Moravy said, according to Euronews. That is how it drove upside down on the ramp.

The limit is the gas. Moravy said the Thrust version gets about 5 seconds of thruster use per fill, MGR Online reported. A refill takes 2 to 6 hours with an external nitrogen supply, he said; Electrek reported 6 to 7 hours. Tesla's target is 30 minutes. Yann LeCun, the AI scientist, estimated less than 10 seconds of useful thrust, "probably about 5", according to Futurism.

Three versions, and what a place in the queue costs

Tesla described three versions, Reuters reported: Performance, a two-seat road car with no thrusters; Thrust, a two-seater with rear thrusters for racing; and Rocket, a one-seater with 10 thrusters and a "full flight system", sold by invitation only. Moravy gave a range of more than 480 km and a top speed above 370 km/h. In 2017 Tesla promised about 1,000 km (620 miles) of range and a US$200,000 base price, with deliveries in 2020; Electrek counts at least eight missed delivery targets since.

In the United States a reservation needs a US$50,000 deposit for the Performance version and US$250,000 for Thrust. The reservation agreement says Tesla "cannot guarantee when your vehicle will actually be delivered", The Drive reported: a place in line, not an order. Musk was frank about the brief. "This is not necessarily a safety-optimized car, OK?" he said, according to Fortune.

Is it legal to fly one?

Not in any clear way yet. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told CBS News that "the Tesla vehicle does not meet the FAA definition of an aircraft". That is a statement about whose job it is, not an approval. The road-safety regulator, NHTSA, said the maker "must ensure that it does not defy applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards" and that it "will continue to monitor".

Tesla's own site says the Rocket version is "not approved for public road use", NBC reported, and Musk said he is "not sure it's necessarily legal in all jurisdictions", according to ABC News Australia. Experts were blunt. "We are literally talking about hopping," Roger Connor, vertical-flight curator at the Smithsonian's air and space museum, told CNN. Michael Milford of Queensland University of Technology called it a "slick publicity stunt" with "very limited actual utility".

The money: a halo car, and a much bigger bet in the sky

Investors liked the show: Tesla shares rose about 5% before the market opened on 16 October, Reuters reported. Analysts did not expect sales to follow. Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives said it "will not move the volume or revenue needle" but helps the brand. Gene Munster of Deepwater called it "an engineering flex with no commercial value beyond embarrassing traditional car makers", and Morningstar's Seth Goldstein called it Tesla's new halo car, a flagship that lifts the brand rather than the sales figures.

The larger market is not flying sports cars but air taxis: small electric aircraft that take off and land vertically, known as eVTOL. Forecasts are large and old. In a 2021 update, Morgan Stanley estimated the market at about US$1 trillion by 2040, Vertical Mag reported. Deloitte and the Aerospace Industries Association put the US market at about US$115 billion a year by 2035, also in 2021. China's aviation regulator expects its "low-altitude economy" of drones and air taxis to pass 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035.

The companies are at different stages. Joby is in the fifth and final stage of FAA type certification and is "targeting first passengers in 2026", it said in its second-quarter results. XPeng's flying-car unit, Aridge, said in October 2025 that its Land Aircraft Carrier, a road vehicle that carries a two-seat drone-style aircraft, had more than 7,000 pre-orders. EHang withdrew its 2026 guidance in August because ticketed passenger flights in China were delayed.

What it means in Thailand

Tesla Thailand is taking Roadster reservations, MGR Online and Daily News reported. The Performance version needs 178,000 baht up front plus 1,598,000 baht within 10 days, 1,776,000 baht in total. The Thrust version needs 8,873,000 baht in total, limited to one per buyer. These are deposits, not prices: Tesla has not announced a Thai price, a delivery date or how the car would be registered on Thai roads.

Air taxis are closer. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) runs eVTOL flights under a regulatory sandbox, a supervised trial zone, and is drafting specific rules, it told an ICAO Asia-Pacific meeting in September 2026. CAAT's head, Air Chief Marshal Manat Chavanaprayoon, rode EHang's pilotless EH216-S at SCB's headquarters in Bangkok in November 2025, EHang said, naming Pattaya, Koh Larn, Phuket and Koh Samui as planned zones. EHang aims for a Thai commercial operation certificate "within 2026", a goal rather than an approval. A working group in Phuket has picked a first test site, Aviation Week reported.

Analysis: what Silicon Valley Innovation takes from it

This section is the view of Silicon Valley Innovation, the company that publishes SV News and builds software for businesses in Thailand. It is analysis, not reporting.

The hard part of the Roadster demo is not the gas; it is control. Keeping a car that weighs more than a tonne and a half steady through a flip, then landing it on four wheels, needs sensors, software that decides many times a second, and actuators that respond at once. That is the same discipline that lands SpaceX rockets, and it is the know-how that spreads into cars, drones and robots long after a stunt is forgotten.

Economically, the Roadster is a marketing product, and the analysts above say so. The change to how people move, if it comes, will come from cheaper batteries, electric motors and autonomy software, the parts that make small electric aircraft affordable to build and run, and from regulators who write the rules for them.

For Thailand the near-term opportunity is the low-altitude economy taking shape around CAAT's sandbox: island hops for tourists, inspection and delivery drones, and the booking, scheduling, safety and maintenance software those services will need. Tourism operators and property developers in Phuket, Samui and Pattaya can follow CAAT's draft rules now, before routes and landing sites are decided.

What to watch next

Tesla's official specifications and a price, which conflicting reports leave unsettled; whether 2028 production holds; CAAT's eVTOL rules; whether EHang wins its Thai commercial certificate in 2026; and Joby's first passenger flights.

FAQ

Can the Tesla Roadster really fly?

It can jump and hop for a few seconds using compressed-gas thrusters. Tesla's demonstration showed no flight from one place to another, and the FAA says the vehicle does not meet its definition of an aircraft.

How much does the Tesla Roadster cost in Thailand?

Tesla has not announced a Thai price. Tesla Thailand takes reservations with total deposits of 1,776,000 baht for the Performance version and 8,873,000 baht for the Thrust version.

When will the Tesla Roadster be delivered?

Tesla promises production in 2028 but has given no delivery date, and its reservation agreement says it cannot guarantee when a car will be delivered.

Are flying taxis coming to Thailand?

They are being tested. CAAT runs eVTOL flights under a regulatory sandbox and is drafting rules, and EHang aims for a Thai commercial certificate within 2026. No commercial passenger service has been approved yet.

Sources

• CBS News: Tesla Roadster debut, "flying cars are real"
• CBS News: FAA and NHTSA on the Tesla Roadster
• NBC News: Elon Musk shows flying Tesla Roadster after years of delays
• TechCrunch: Tesla reveals SpaceX-powered Roadster
• Reuters via Honolulu Star-Advertiser: Tesla unveils Roadster with thrusters, targets 2028 production
• Electrek: An updated technical look at Tesla's next-gen Roadster
• Fortune: Tesla flying Roadster, 2028 production and price
• The Drive: Tesla cannot guarantee Roadster reservation holders will ever get a car
• AutoGuide: The reality behind Tesla's Roadster thruster system
• Euronews: Elon Musk unveils new Tesla Roadster that can fly
• Dezeen: Tesla launches flying Roadster concept car
• The Beep: Tesla Roadster revealed with SpaceX thrusters
• CNN via ABC30: Can the new Tesla Roadster fly?
• Futurism: Experts on the Roadster's thrust
• ABC News Australia: Experts say Tesla Roadster not legal in Australia
• Vertical Mag: Morgan Stanley stays bullish on urban air mobility
• AIN: US advanced air mobility market could generate US$115 billion a year by 2035
• EHang: Second quarter 2026 results
• Joby Aviation: Second quarter 2026 results
• MGR Online: Tesla Roadster reservations in Thailand
• Daily News: Tesla Roadster in Thailand
• ICAO Asia-Pacific: Thailand's low-altitude economy strategies (CAAT)
• EHang: CAAT chief rides the EH216-S in Bangkok
• Aviation Week: EHang exports its sandbox model