Tesla is taking $250,000 deposits for a Roadster with SpaceX thrusters. The FAA says it isn’t an aircraft

The flying car just got a little closer to reality.

Tesla’s long-awaited Roadster drove upside down along a curved ramp, launched into the air, rolled 180 degrees using bursts of compressed air and landed on its wheels during a livestreamed demonstration Thursday at SpaceX’s rocket test facility in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. Moments later, it used its thrusters to leap over a lineup of Tesla vehicles, including a Cybertruck and a Tesla Semi.

“Turns out the future does have flying cars,” CEO Elon Musk wrote on X afterward.

Getting one into customers’ garages is another story.

When Tesla first unveiled its second-generation Roadster in November 2017, flying wasn’t part of the pitch. The company promised an electric supercar that could accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, seat four people and travel 620 miles on a single charge. Tesla began taking $50,000 reservations—or $250,000 for one of 1,000 limited Founders Series cars—and targeted a 2020 launch.

That date came and went. Musk has repeatedly treated the sports car as a lower priority than Tesla’s other projects, while also blaming supply chain shortages for earlier delays. On Tesla’s October 2024 earnings call, he thanked “the long-suffering deposit holders of the Tesla Roadster” and explained that the car was “not just the icing on the cake, it’s the cherry on the icing on the........

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