Why You Should Be Cautious With Elon Musk’s “Flying Car”

Elon Musk has spent years selling a vision of the future in which technology makes the extraordinary look inevitable. His latest spectacle, a Tesla Roadster prototype that performs airborne stunts using SpaceX technology, offers another reason to pay attention to that vision, but also to question how much of it is ready for the real world.

At a SpaceX facility in McGregor, Texas, last week, Musk unveiled a prototype of Tesla’s long-delayed electric sports car in a demonstration designed to make conventional supercars look rather pedestrian. The unmanned vehicle drove up an inverted vertical ramp, hung upside down, dropped, flipped in the air and used compressed-gas jets to soften its landing.

“We need an audience to prove that it’s not AI or SI,” Musk said before the demonstration.

The spectacle was striking. The unanswered questions were more consequential.

The Roadster’s apparent ability to leave the ground has encouraged comparisons with the flying DeLorean in Back to the Future. But a car that can execute a short, controlled airborne manoeuvre is not necessarily a flying car in the conventional sense. The demonstration showed brief bursts of thrust, not sustained flight, and did not establish that the technology could operate safely on public roads.

“The future should look like the future,” Musk told the audience as the prototype returned to the stage.

That is an appealing proposition. For anyone considering spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on an extraordinary vehicle, however, the more practical question is whether the future Musk is demonstrating can actually be delivered.

Tesla says the Roadster uses high-pressure gas tanks and cold-gas thrusters developed with SpaceX. Rather than relying on wings or propellers, the system releases compressed gas through specialised nozzles to generate directional force. The technology is intended to enable brief manoeuvres that ordinary road cars cannot perform.

Musk also claimed the vehicle could accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in one second. That figure, like the demonstration’s more spectacular capabilities, should be treated as a claim until independently verified under clearly defined test conditions.

Acceleration is only one measure of a vehicle’s performance. Braking, stability, tyre grip, crash protection and predictable handling matter considerably more when a car shares a road with pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists.

A technology that generates thrust through high-pressure gas systems introduces additional questions about safety, weight, maintenance and operating conditions. Tesla has not demonstrated that the proposed system can be used routinely outside a controlled testing environment.

A promise that has been years in the making

The Roadster’s history offers another reason for caution. Tesla unveiled the second-generation model in 2017 and initially targeted production for 2020. That deadline passed without the vehicle entering production.

The latest target is 2028, but a production date is not the same as a delivery guarantee. Developing a dramatic prototype and manufacturing a reliable vehicle that meets regulatory requirements are fundamentally different tasks.

Tesla’s Cybertruck programme provides a useful reminder of the difficulties involved in turning ambitious product promises into commercially available vehicles. The pickup was unveiled in 2019, with initial deliveries beginning in November 2023, after repeated delays.

The Roadster’s proposed technology could present an even more complicated engineering challenge because it combines an electric sports car with specialised propulsion equipment.

Tesla has described several configurations, including a Performance model, a Thrust edition and a more specialised Rocket package. Information reported around the unveiling put reservations at $50,000 for one version and $250,000 for the Thrust edition. The Rocket configuration has been described as unsuitable for public-road use.

But reservation prices are not final purchase prices, and a demonstration does not establish when the different versions will be available, what their final specifications will be or how much it will cost to maintain them.

For prospective buyers, the distinction matters. A deposit secures an expression of interest in a product whose final capabilities, delivery schedule and regulatory status may still change.

The regulatory question Musk cannot dodge

A vehicle capable of launching itself into the air raises safety questions that conventional cars do not face in the same way.

Any road-going version would need to satisfy applicable vehicle safety and equipment standards. Regulators would also have to consider the implications of high-pressure propulsion systems, the possibility of unexpected thrust and the risks posed to people near the vehicle.

The Federal Highway Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have different responsibilities for roads and vehicle safety in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration regulates aircraft and relevant aviation activities. Whether any aviation approvals would apply to a particular Roadster configuration would depend on its design and intended operation.

Tesla has not established that the prototype’s airborne capabilities have been approved for public-road use. Nor has it demonstrated that the more specialised Rocket configuration could be operated safely in ordinary traffic.

That leaves a gap between the spectacle and the product a customer might actually receive.

A crowded market needs more than theatre

The timing of the unveiling also matters. Tesla is operating in a global electric-vehicle market in which competition increasingly revolves around price, technology, production efficiency and profitability.

The International Energy Agency reported that global electric-car sales exceeded 20 million in 2025, accounting for about one-quarter of new-car sales worldwide. Chinese manufacturers have become particularly formidable competitors, expanding their international reach while putting pressure on established automakers.

In that environment, an extraordinary sports car can help Tesla attract attention and reinforce its reputation for technological ambition. But attention is not the same as commercial success.

The Roadster could eventually become a limited-production luxury vehicle or a showcase for technologies developed elsewhere in Musk’s business empire. Either outcome might have strategic value. Neither guarantees that the car will generate substantial revenue or profits.

Tesla has not disclosed expected production volumes for the Roadster or provided a detailed financial forecast for the model. Investors therefore have little basis for assessing its likely contribution to the company’s earnings.

There is also a difference between demonstrating that a technology can work once and proving that it can be manufactured reliably, maintained affordably and used safely over many years.

That is particularly important when a product’s most dramatic features may be impractical or unavailable for everyday use.

Watch the engineering, not just the spectacle

Musk has built a career around making ambitious technological promises. Some have helped reshape industries, while others have taken considerably longer to materialise than initially suggested.

The Roadster deserves to be judged on what Tesla eventually delivers rather than what a prototype appears capable of doing during a carefully controlled demonstration.

Before treating it as a breakthrough in personal transportation, prospective buyers and investors should look for independent performance tests, final production specifications, a credible delivery schedule, transparent pricing and clear regulatory approvals.

They should also ask whether the technology solves a practical problem or simply makes an expensive car more spectacular.

The Roadster’s airborne manoeuvres may be real demonstrations of engineering ingenuity. They do not yet prove that consumers will be able to buy a safe, road-legal car that routinely performs them.

Musk’s promise is that the future should look like the future. The more useful test is whether it can survive contact with manufacturing constraints, regulators, customers and the economics of the automotive industry.

Until Tesla answers those questions, caution is warranted.

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