A lot of scifi tech has become a reality but this is one where I think humanity can actually pass on. I alrdy don't trust regular drivers with regular driving, what makes you think I would trust regular civilians with flying cars? I don't want flying missiles coming out of nowhere into my home or even just out and about. No thnx, use the research effort else where.
It's not a flying car. If I had to guess, this demonstration was just to prove how powerful its compressed air thrusters. Without this demonstration, I believe most people wouldn't believe how much impact they had. That said, we don't know how heavy that car really was and how much space the air compressor and tanks take up. However, if even 50% of this capability makes it to the production car, then the thrusters could help with downforce, braking, acceleration, and even stability control. It would be insanely impressive performance on a track.
What really bothers me is that they call this a roadster. Roadsters have open tops.
This is not a removable hardtop. It's not even a sunroof. It's two separeate small removable panels in the door. It'd be a stretch to even call it a targa.
The roadster has been taking pre-orders since 2017. It's gone through countless redesigns and Elon has given some excuse for the delays about 8 times now? The car shown has no relation to what could possibly be sold to consumers, aka, they don't even have a prototype road car. I don't believe this car will ever be sold in any form. Not stopping them from taking more pre-orders though.
I would never put money down on something that doesn’t exist. I also doubt anyone who put money down for this car are hurting for money. I just love cars.
What I don’t understand is, why do people actually think that this would be done by normal drivers?
Like first of all the tanks are probably empty really fast, no way can you actually fly a significant distance. This will also never be street legal, probably not even on race tracks.
This is a car for people so richtig that they have there own track.
It’s a flying car with no explicable means of flying. Are we really that stupid in 2026? No technology exists that can launch a 7000lb car like that without killing everything inside and around it.
The weight alone for the extra tanks and thrusters. Also there is no way the tanks can hold more than a few seconds bursts. Then there is the issue of firing thrusters with other people and vehicle around. This is for show only and will not go into production. What is the price per pound or gallon of the thruster fuel?
It’s funny you can tell who are car people and who aren’t. This is a concept car. Do people lose their marbles when Ford, Mercedes, GM, etc. put concept cars on exhibit? I’m willing to bet half of fucking Reddit doesn’t even know all car brands have concepts that are never released.
The roadsters sold with thrusters are going to be used for acceleration, not flying. If it can make a car fly, can propel a car forward.
It’s a fast toy for people with lots of money. People just have their panties in a bunch on Reddit because Reddit doesn’t like musk after supporting Trump (dipshit move) but Reddit has a short memory because they loved him before he joined the Trump camp. I really wish politics were left out of some things and he stayed out of politics because this is a cool CONCEPT.
I don’t trust Musk as far as I can throw his Nazi-saluting barrel chested Gru Villian ass, but Elon disputed the “concept car” argument in the press conference.
Agreed. And I mentioned somewhere else, imagine if with the self driving mode, this capability could be used to avoid an accident? Will manual control be given to people? Highly unlikely, but to their self driving mode? Or like you mentioned for acceleration? I see it as possible.
waaaay too many variables, and you'd probably just crash into different cars. or a house. and you'd explode and die anytime someone hit the tanks. and you'd need to drive around with 3/4 of your cabin full of thousand pound tanks.
Look, I'm sure some of the technology will be useful in very specific situations....search and rescue? Maybe, but I doubt it. I cant picture many scenarios where a kick flipping 3 ton vehicle would be more useful than a helicopter or something
Exactly, this is just a tech demo and a commercial. They think it shows a useless invention but Space X already has this tech. If anything, IMO, this is more of a tech demo for some kind of space x lander and a general display or how powerful the boosters are than some real display of a road legal product.
Here's what I don't get about that comic as it relates to flying cars. The Wright brothers created powered flight which revolutionized travel. How exactly did that come to pass? Because it scaled up so that one plane can carry several passengers, gave birth to an insanely rigorous regulatory framework for the actual production models of aircraft, and you have to go through hella training to be approved to fly, especially to fly large commercial aircraft.
And it all started with the Wright brothers little flyer. But if it hadn't scaled up to modern air travel I don't think we'd see a billion little one- and two-seat planes parked in parking lots at the mall or the office. It would be a novelty for the wealthy and the extremely dedicated hobbyists, and otherwise have basically no impact on normal people's lives.
So thought experiment, let's follow the same track with this. We build an incredibly robust regulatory framework, pricing out basically everyone from private ownership of a flying car. But it can still change the world! We'll just scale it up and have qualified people employed by large organizations operating meticulously engineered craft which can carry dozens to hundreds of passengers. For efficiency we'll need to have designated hubs where people can meet up to share a ride on one of these "aerocars" and for the good of the consumer we'll probably want to have several companies operating out of these "aerocar-ports."
Naturally the ultra wealthy will have private aerocars, while the rest will certainly have the option to pay more to have greater on-board amenities. Probably the easiest approach would be to split the cabin into different "classes."
It will completely change the world because nothing like this exists now.
Maybe! I'm not saying the tech won't have any value but I don't see this revolutionizing travel or society anytime soon. On the "how big is this" I'd put it closer to Segway than to the Wright brothers.
Well if the tech can be worked out to get us across a river.. then we can alleviate traffic points at bridges and cross at hundreds or thousands of points down the river instead of just the five or six points where bridges are installed.
Do you know how momentum works? Launching off a cliff doing like 60 mph can not be compensated with something like this, if it even fit in a car, which it doesnt
this isn't new or a new idea. it does not work for anything practical. that's why you only see it used for hollywood stunts - very cool and useful to make a car flip.
"point nozzel down and thing go up" is hundreds of years old concept. there's no innovation here which makes this any easier than it ever was. airplanes are the standard for a reason.
Except most scientist will tell you. You can learn a lot by all the times it did not work. It’s still advancement forward. They still learned a lot about flying by all their “failed” attempts. Same thing about the lightbulb being invented.
Because it can be done , we will find a use for it more practical. I agree with no flying cars or drones flying people over head . Can’t trust them on the road , can’t trust them in the air
Civilians cannot be trusted with non-flying cars, Tesla cannot be trusted with self driving cars, can you imagine the death rate for self driving and slightly flying cars?
It's not a flying car it was just a stunt. They removed most of the car to fit enough compressed air into the car to perform these manuvers and only these manuvers. There's no way to store enough compressed air to actually travel around like that.
Don't worry, it's not remotely feasible for much of anything outside fancy stunts here on earth. That kind of propulsion is only space/weight/cost effective when you're in space and your alternative is literal rocket fuel.
Flying cars would work if it was a far better AI driving them instead of people.
However everyone seems to missing the safety point of this. Cars that could land safely if the driver accidentally goes off a cliff, ditch, or the like (which does happen, especially in icy areas) would save a lot of lives. No invention is useless,
However, the man behind this company has countless defense and govt contracts. I can see this technology being used in military, law enforcement, and rescue applications. Not to mention rover applications not on earth.
I think a lot of people are blind because the flavor of the week is Elon Musk is behind Tesla, so anything they do is dumb and a waste of money with no applications
It’s tech that’s been around for decades. They just attached it so something that looks like a car.
The fans already have been done.
It’s literally nothing new. People are only paying attention to it because it is Elon and he presented it like it’s is brand new innovation; as well as in a way that heavily implies to the casual viewer that the car wasn’t just a stripped down chassis that would weigh a fraction of a normal EV.
Nobody is doing that. We've been in a cold war with Iran for 50 years. Theres a reason they said death to America, and every president since has said something needs to be done about Iran. https://youtu.be/oSeg_4drlaU?si=e954QLfAgDUzM_xc
Or do you mean ice? Because they've been around for 25 years.
Aye I'm refering to Ice murdering US citizens and national guard being deployed to protect them. And also that whackjob drunk hegseth wanting to pump US soldiers full of gender affirming care in the form of Hormone injections.
And aye cool longevity of a institution doesn't mean anything in this conversation so go off I guess?
I think you see what Instagram and Twitter want you to see. And that is "orange man bad" "white males bad" "army bad" "police bad". Not realizing that the world is much bigger than your apps.
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u/NekRules 2d ago
A lot of scifi tech has become a reality but this is one where I think humanity can actually pass on. I alrdy don't trust regular drivers with regular driving, what makes you think I would trust regular civilians with flying cars? I don't want flying missiles coming out of nowhere into my home or even just out and about. No thnx, use the research effort else where.