Tesla's new Roadster uses SpaceX thrusters to fly and hop

Tesla revealed its long-delayed second-generation Roadster on October 15, 2026, at an outdoor event near Waco, Texas. The car, first promised in 2017 and then promised again with thrusters in 2018, finally showed up — and it did something no production car has done before: it hopped clean over a row of other Tesla vehicles.

The trick is ten cold-gas thrusters fed by 600 liters of compressed air stored in Carbon Fiber Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs) — the same type of tank used in SpaceX rockets. Tesla says the air supply is rechargeable, though it did not specify how. At the Waco reveal, the car climbed an inverted ramp, spun in the air, and cleared a Cybercab, Cybertruck, Tesla Semi, Model Y, and Model 3 in sequence while in motion.

Performance figures are extreme by any measure. All three trims hit 0 to 60 mph in under one second and carry a 300-mile range with a top speed exceeding 230 mph. Tesla is offering three variants:

• Performance — two seats, active aerodynamics, $50,000 reservation deposit.
• Thrust — two seats, race-spec configuration with rear-mounted thrusters, $250,000 deposit.
• Rocket — single seat, all ten thrusters active, invite-only.

No base prices were announced. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2028.

The Roadster is unambiguously a halo car — Elon Musk acknowledged it will have minimal revenue impact. Critics including YouTuber Marques Brownlee called the announcement potentially “a prank,” pointing to the long history of Tesla overpromising on this specific model. The COPV tanks also have a fraught history: pressure vessel failures contributed to two SpaceX Falcon 9 explosions in 2016, though Tesla says the configuration here operates at far lower pressures.

Still, the video from Waco is real and the physics are credible. Cold-gas thrusters are mature aerospace technology, and using compressed air (rather than nitrogen or a propellant) keeps the system road-legal and refillable. Whether Tesla can put this into a 2028 production car at those price points remains to be seen.

As first reported by TechCrunch, the reveal marks the end of one of the most drawn-out product announcements in automotive history.