The one with the actual rocket engine is not being sold to the public and Tesla website explicitly states it's not legal to drive it on public roads. It's mostly just a cool demo/prototype and I'm sure there will be privately run tracks that let people drive one.
replyThe generally available car will have cold-gas thrusters which boost acceleration but is nothing like what was demo'd.
It's mostly just stock fraud and laying the way for the Space X acquisition of Tesla at a hyper inflated valuation.
replyAnd it's sure going to increase the blast radius when these get into a collision. Even if you can't fire the thrusters, that pressurized tank can't be safe.
replyTeslas already have very strict (annoyingly strict) gating keeping specific functionality off of public roads (Summon). The drag mode thruster-assisted boost will probably leverage that. I also imagine that cameras on the car would stop it from being engaged if it detects humans in its firing area even when not on public roads.
replyThe flying trim will never be sold to general consumers. Even the rear-thruster trim is currently listed at a $250,000 pre-order fee, which is a deposit for a fraction of the full cost of the car. Final cost will be over $1M. Any of the thruster variants will be extremely rare; like, the one guy in your city that has one will show it off at car shows twice a year, McLaren P1, level of rare.
There is no world in which that car comes off the lot for $1M. That’s a $5M car, minimum
replyIn a video by Hagerty’s, Tesla claimed that both variants will be sold, for whatever that’s worth.
replyYeah they'll make a few dozen of them and sell them to people like Joe Rogan. There is zero chance that any individual who doesn't have the personal phone number of a Tesla leadership team member will be able to buy one of these.
replySo it's a car for wankers. Makes sense.
replyI’m no Musk fan but I found it cool and try to balance my negativity towards the person with what I’m seeing.
replyPlenty of ways to maim/kill people in traditional cars already and I doubt this will be the most common one in roadsters.