Blog Musk Says He Wants the Roadster to Hover

Elon Musk wants the upcoming Tesla Roadster to hover.

The Tesla CEO shared new details on the supercar, as well as the possibility of a van with a solar roof during an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Musk said Tesla should finalize engineering this year and could start delivering the car next year. Musk has teased a “SpaceX” version of the car for several years, saying it will use cold-gas thrusters developed by the space company, propelling the car to even greater speeds. 

But, Elon wants the cat to fly.

“I want it to hover,” Musk said. “I’m trying to figure out how to make this thing hover, without, you know, killing people. I thought, maybe we could make it hover, but not too high. So maybe it could hover, like, a meter above the ground, or something. So, if you plummet, you blow out the suspension, but you’re not going to die. Maybe, I don’t know, six feet. If we put a height limit on it, it will probably be fine.”

Musk told Rogan that Roadsters with the SpaceX package will not have a back seat, making room for the thruster system.

Musk said he expects the thruster to come out of a James Bond-style flip-down license plate.

Listen to the full interview here. 

 

[HenryT]

It's already been done My $190,000 flying hovercraft is full of eels

Move along, nothing to see here.

 

[whitex]

I bet any money the roadster will hover, when in zero gravity environment, however that particular fine print is not coming until after they get suckers to pay for the hover option.

Elon has pulled it many times - "your P85D totally meets the 691hp spec we advertised, but not with the battery we sold you", "your screen doesn't yellow, if you are in space that is, on Earth it's exposed to oxygen, therefore yellowing is expected", "the car you bought 7 years ago will fully self drive while you speed on the back, oh but we didn't commit when, so we still have few decades to deliver it to you", etc, etc.

 

[OrthoSurg]

Just spend some time and money to fix your awful customer service.

I had 10 excellent customer service experiences

 

[damageprone]

I imagine that he will equip it with some sort of magnetic suspension which will make it "hover" but not like what people are thinking...as of yet.

 

[Sparkeur]

At 250K, it's a whole new market sector to disappoint.

 

[DeaconTom]

Just spend some time and money to fix your awful customer service.

Agree. Work on ending phantom braking first also! Not good news: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/18/tes...al-debut-on-jd-power-dependability-study.html

 

[OrthoSurg]

At 250K, it's a whole new market sector to disappoint.

If you think it will be the same service team for roadster you are mistake

 

[HankLloydRight]

Yes, the NG Roadster will hover (on Mars).

 

[jboy210]

At 250K, it's a whole new market sector to disappoint.

Talk to anyone that has owned a Supercar. They are great to own; if you buy a dedicated service garage to maintain them.

Lambo Aventedor S - $7,500/year maintenance - Annual Service is $5,000, $2,000 for tires (good for 6,000 miles or so). Set this list for more info

Bottom line. If those prices are a factor, don't buy the car.

 

[flywithdan]

agreed. lets not forget what hover means. hover is simply reducing downward pressure on the normal. Lets not assume it's jetson's "zip around hover", but intellectually the next iteration might be a strategy to reduce surface pressure and lift the car during coasting periods (highway). Leaving just enough rubber to the road to provide accel/decel and turn where necessary. this in turn would provide an incredibly smooth ride and a distance from pavement configuration to match the transit profile.

 

[GeoffEV]

yea, a hovering Tesla ! Has Elon been smoking that devil weed again?
I'm waiting for the submersible version

Finally! I've been wading through all the funny and informative comments and SiliconD finally brings up the obvious: Elon&Joe had some good shxt just prior to the podcast! "Dude, what if it could hover?!" "Gnarly, mon!"

It's good for them both to enjoy life a little more than most - they've given more of themselves than most. Party on Garth!

 

[Sparkeur]

Full Self Floating...end of the year.

 

[cyantist]

Anyone ever notice that the Jetsons hovercar had an exhaust pipe? (and folded into a brief case)

 

[jboy210]

Anyone ever notice that the Jetsons hovercar had an exhaust pipe? (and folded into a brief case)

A falcon 9 has an exhaust pipe

 

[Matias]

Hovering with cold gas (i.e. air) thrusters will make incredible noise. You can’t use it in any public area(even if safety regulations otherwise allowed it, which they probably won’t)

 

[dazizmor]

Flying/hovering cars seem like a cool idea at first, but less so the more you think about its practical application. Seriously, has anyone paid attention to how poorly people drive with their wheels on the ground? Now imagine that 100 feet up with a 3rd axis of motion involved. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

I blame the Jetsons for popularizing this fantasy.

 

[GPSBlues]

maybe Elon's flamethowers were the outcome of the first failed rocketroadster VTOL attempts...repurposed to retail...

 

[huffeng]

Perhaps should also consider the clearance on overpasses.

 

[John 3LR]

Elon Musk wants the upcoming Tesla Roadster to hover. The Tesla CEO shared new details on the supercar, as well as the possibility of a van with a solar roof during an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Musk said Tesla should finalize engineering this year and could start delivering the car next year. Musk...
[WPURI="https://teslamotorsclub.com/blog/2021/02/12/musk-says-he-wants-the-roadster-to-hover/"]READ FULL ARTICLE[/WPURI]

 

[John 3LR]

Ground effect at 2 feet needs less energy and could be done with ducted fans. Definitely a possibility in next few years. Russians built massive ground effect jets during Cold War so science is easy.