Kicking off the Tesla Roadster unveiling on Thursday, CEO Elon Musk said he brought a live audience to make sure people don’t think what the company will show was AI-generated.
He wasn’t joking.
During the presentation, the Tesla Roadster successfully performed a number of tricks that boggle the mind and are mostly at odds with anything any regular car can even come close to doing. This includes stupidly fast acceleration, hanging upside-down on an inverted C-ramp, and, yes, flying.
For details about the launch and the car itself, go here. Now, let’s just enjoy the best moments from the show. Here are all the tricks Tesla Roadster has performed (the names come from Musk, but we’ve taken the liberty of naming a few of them ourselves).
The bat
If you’ve just seen Tesla’s tweets and not the whole event, you may have missed the best part. Prior to launching itself into the air (the car was remotely controlled; the “driver” sitting inside was a robot) on that C ramp, the Roadster slowly climbs the ramp and first stands completely still vertically, and then goes a step further and literally stands hanging upside down, with the suction fans on the bottom holding it in place and, seemingly, defying gravity. See the entire sequence in the recording of the event, starting at about 6 minutes and 11 seconds in.
Mashable Light Speed
The flight
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Moments after that, the car speeds up that same ramp, launches itself into the air whilst upside down, uses the thrusters to flip itself over, and gently sets itself to the ground. That’s the moment shared by Tesla’s X account, and it’s worth singling out, but do watch the entire sequence as we did, again. And again. And again.
The kickflip
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Next, the Roadster propels itself over Tesla’s entire fleet of vehicles, consisting of Tesla Model 3, Model Y, Cybercab, Cybetruck, and the massive Tesla Semi. But it doesn’t just fly over the cars; it also performs a horizontal spin that Musk calls the kickflip. To us, it doesn’t look like it would be a pleasant experience for a human driver inside, but it look survivable. Maybe.
The launch
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Besides being a flying car, the Roadster is also a super-fast sports car. It can go from 0-60mph in 0.81 seconds (yes, that zero point eighty-one, well below one second), and Musk claims it will ultimately be even faster. The limit? When it starts detaching retinas from unfortunate drivers’ eyes, that’s where Tesla will stop. The video is short on purpose; it lasts exactly 0.81 seconds.
The other kickflip
For its last trick, the Roadster does another kickflip, this time launching itself vertically and spinning before landing back on the ground. This doesn’t make it any less cool than the first one. It starts at about 21:39 into the unveiling video.
The photos
Tesla’s official X account also shared a cool gallery of pro-grade photos taken during the event. Check them out below.
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For more Tesla Roadster coverage, go here.
