Tesla showed on Thursday, 15 October 2026, a Roadster 2 prototype that climbs a ramp, holds with suction, flips in the air and lands, using thrusters drawn from SpaceX. The demonstration was at the rocket test site in Texas. The car was driven remotely, Elon Musk said, „to make sure we don't kill anyone”. It is not a street-legal car and it is not a flying taxi.

The footage also shows a leap over a line of existing Tesla models, then a 0–60 mph run that Musk claims in under a second. „Flying cars are real. It's got altitude controls, thrusters and main thrusters in the rear. So it can basically fly like a rocket”, he said at the event. He added that the prototype is „not necessarily a safety optimised car” but „takes the fun meter to 11”, and that he is not sure it is legal in all jurisdictions.

Roadster 2 production is slated for 2028, priced above 200,000 dollars. After the show, the reservation site asked for a 50,000 pound deposit on a „performance” version and 250,000 dollars for „thrust”. A one-seat „rocket” variant with a „full flight system” is invitation only. The company wrote in plain language that flying it is not permitted on public roads.

British coverage described cold-gas or compressed-air thrusters, not an orbital rocket motor. The Irish Times and The Guardian reported the same event; AP filed a separate story. This is not a product review and not booking advice. A deposit of hundreds of thousands of dollars on a car that cannot legally fly on the road is a commercial risk, not a „guaranteed future” item.

Musk himself, in 2014, sounded sceptical of flying cars. Three years later he announced Roadster 2 as an electric sports car meant to give petrol cars a „hardcore smackdown”. The Texas run is a range spectacle: ramp, suction, leap. Until there is type approval, that is all it is — a prototype kept well away from traffic.

Image: Smnt, Tesla Roadster 2020 prototype, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; archive concept, not the Texas demonstration on 15 October 2026.

Sources consulted: Tesla unveils flying sports car with SpaceX rocket thrusters - The Irish Times; Elon Musk reveals Tesla Roadster 2 flying-car demo - The Guardian.