Musk reveals Tesla Roadster could hover and fly

The Tesla Roadster could have a hover function that would also allow it to fly “pretty fast”.

This latest astonishing Tesla plan was revealed by CEO Elon Musk on the Joes Rogan Experience podcast last week.

“We are going to throw some rocket technology in that car,” Musk told Rogan.

“I want it to hover. We got to figure out how to make it hover without killing people.”

The new Tesla Roadster was previewed in 2017 and is due to go on-sale in 2022.

A high-pressure air bottle and thrusters to enable the hover function would be part of a SpaceX package that would be fitted instead of the vestigial rear seats that will come standard.

“You’d go pretty fast, but you are going to be time-limited,” Musk said. “It’s going to use a super high-pressure air bottle.

“The standard version will have a back row with two small seats, like child seats in a Porsche or something.

“If you get the SpaceX option package then in that place where those two seats is a high-pressure carbon overwrapped pressure vessel, something at around 10,000 psi, and a bunch of thrusters.”

This is not the first time Tesla has linked the Roadster with its interplanetary SpaceX rocket program.

It launched a Roaster prototype into space in 2018 on a Falcon Heavy rocket, complete with dummy astronaut.

When first unveiled, Tesla promised a 0-96km/h (60mph) time in 1.9 sec and a 1000km range for the Roadster.

But that may have to be improved as these are the sort of number the Model S Plaid and Plaid+ are now boasting and the Roadster is more expensive at a base price of US$250,000 ($320,000).

Hovering sounds like just the sort of performance boost to justify that extra cost!

Judging by what Musk said to Rogan, the hover function is clearly not yet fully sorted.

“I thought maybe we could make it hover but not too high. You make it hover like a metre above the ground or something like that.

“Something where if you plummet, you blow the suspension, but you are not going to die. Maybe six feet. You probably just put a height limit on it.”