This looks like a genuinely fun project to have worked on. That can be the difference between a top engineer burning out and staying motivated.
This is in the same category as the Tesla flamethrower or the Teslaquila.
After Cybertruck and the LARPing as a humanoid-robotics company, I was genuinely unsure if Tesla still had top-tier engineering talent. This shows otherwise. Maybe some of these improvements will trickle down to the Models Y and 3.
(It also looks like a lot of SpaceX engineering. I could see folks there wanting to take a break, particularly if this happened while the pad was busted.)
Also, I imagine the cold gas thrusters and control software are all from spacex, this is what starship uses to orient itself in the air.
You’re that confident none of the materials or techniques aerospace engineers used to lighten this car are relevant to the rest of the lineup?
> I imagine the cold gas thrusters and control software are all from spacex, this is what starship uses to orient itself in the air
Not really, it uses grid fins and gimbals. The closest cold gas comes to air on Starship is in the upper atmosphere.
Nice pedantry on the thrusters in air, but I imagine the software here to orient the car quickly using thrusters was borrowed from spacex, the thrusters certainly were.
Again, none of this has a practical application - it’s like the flamethrowers- Elon thought it would be cool, so they made it.
Come on. They literally sent a car into space.
The Roadster was Musks personal vehicle, so Tesla didn't pay for that either.
Telsa board doesn’t, they need moonshots to justify their valuation. Elon doesn’t care, the engineers sure as shit don’t.
Maybe a midline quality control and reliability person? That’s not likely where many of the engineers for this project came from though.
But, imagine instead being an engineer of any kind today and you’re only getting paid to work on boring things like advanced automotive technology and building cars that can maneuver themselves in midair and might possibly fly in the future? Ridiculous.
(This message should not be taken as support for Musk or any of his views or business ventures.)
“Play” “fun”, curiosity” and “challenge for challenges sake” are adaptive strategies for learning unexpectedly useful things.
RAM jets?
A car could get 10–30% better energy efficiency than a conventional car at the same speed. Initially, the air jets would reduce and then eliminate wheel drag, and then hold for safety maneuvers. At speed, off-wheel-lift would be generated aerodynamically, with the option to also spot redirect air pressure from the RAM jet, or the air jets.
Then 2.0 would be the fully redesigned one-eyed two-seated flying Tesla Bodywingster.
All for the environment!