Tesla delays reveal of production Roadster 2 to April Fools' Day | TechCrunch

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I wouldn't be surprised if it's an April fools joke. Elon's been hyping this up like it's a flying car on the Joe Rogan podcast he said it's not really even a car which implied a flying vehicle but there's no way they could keep that under wraps this close to launch and he's just crazy enough to come out and say April fools it doesn't exist or something crazy like that. I mean there's no regulations for a flying car, how would you register it? License it? Insure it? but also to just come out with a conventional car at this point it would have been so overhyped that it would be a disappointment. There's definitely something strange about this.

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My guess is gas thrusters

EVTOL

Flying is a loose term for Elon in this context. It can hop. It cannot fly. The physics do not work out for it, and Tesla is not in the game of propellers, neither is SpaceX.

I'm pretty sure there are plenty of regulations for helicopters

🙄

Everything you say here is either ridiculous, wrong, or both. No regulations for a flying car? You 100% sure about that?

It was gonna pushed anyways.

If you strap some wheels to a helicopter, is it road legal?

Yes! Elon has tweeted before about them being cold gas thrusters with a CPOV tank of air that has a pump powered by the battery of the car. IMO it will be a lil hop. Just like how the dragon capsule moves around using cold gas thrusters to dock with the space station. Will improve 0-60 time of typical car physics due to gas boost. This is knowledge from his tweets when he was excited about this car years ago

Here's Elon talking about it with Joe Rogan: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCNqEFsWJhE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCNqEFsWJhE)

Its not gonna hop, but it will use them for an extra acceleration boost. Possibly even for improving cornering stability, but honestly my bet is only the former.

The thing is he said it's not even really a car like a week or 2 ago on Rogan so if it's real it's gotta be more than that.

> IMO it will be a lil hop. Ah, something like Yangwang U9 but with thrusters instead of active suspension. Would be interesting.

From [Tesla Master Plan Part 3](https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/Tesla-Master-Plan-Part-3.pdf): > > 05 Sustainably Fuel Planes & Boats > > ... Short distance flights can also be electrified through optimized aircraft design and flight trajectory at today’s battery energy > densities... While I think a flying "car" is highly improbable for April, he does like to go "I told you so" and this part of the plan is under-served elsewhere. Propellers is the only piece that they do not have core competency between SpaceX and Tesla; that's a small team to add.

Turns out the FAA just announced new regulations for EVTOLs https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-08-01/faa-clears-evtol-certification-path-powered-lift-rules

EVTOLs exist today. Let’s not act like Tesla is inventing something. Mercedes has been jerking around with one for over 5 years. Knowing Elon, this is probably some concept car that’s poorly thought through and does half of what’s promised.

Oh wow that's wild so maybe it's an autonomous flying vehicle but why would they call it a roadster? This whole thing is strange you would need a pilots license and a drivers license an FAA registration and a DMV registration. I still don't think they could keep this under wraps if it was something this revolutionary but I'm even more intrigued now. It's either going to be something amazing or something very disappointing.

Currently, the plan is: *-* Weight reduction for launch mode using 4 downward cold thrusters, *-* A pair of inertia reduction cold thrusters for faster launch acceleration Edit: that’s all I can say, please don’t keep DMing for more

The new happy path to production is 12-18 months AFTER April 1 2026? What a joke.

It really depends how high it goes. If we are talking less than a couple feet off the ground, there really are not much regulations. Just look at speed boats or ground effect vehicles. For both the faa doesn't really care.

I'm not talking about the FAA, I'm saying that a vehicle that doesn't have contact with the ground will not pass any of the crash tests, pedestrian safety regulations, etc. We can't even get dynamic LED headlights and you think there are no rules preventing hover cars?

The unveiling is not a release.

If you can hop across a red light, that would be interesting (through legally questionable) If you had more range, but only had enough range to, say, cross the Hudson, that would be very useful. (But even more legally questionable)

Of course there are regulations for small flying vehicles. Yes you need a licence, but not a difficult to get one. Just watch this Scott Manley video for more, he flies a VTOL vehicle that is available for sale right now. I don't know how the roadster would look like, if it is going to fly or just hop, but there are regulations to cover the flying part. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wncRFPd69rg

Lol, you believe the master plans?!

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the FAA made this after Elon was involved with the administration. Just saying.

Just add downforce thrusters make the suspension insanely good and the motor insanely good and get <2 0-60 lol

I honestly blame people for falling for shit like this. It's always clear what Elon will actually do. If you can't separate the wheat from the chaff, that's on you. And this isn't related to Tesla, but Elon as a whole. Applies to timelines too.

He has been against flying cars for ages, why would that turn around now. I hope it is moved to Apr-1 to troll on the flying and then surprise release the Roadster everyone has been waiting for with deliveries to Founder Edition. That would be awesome

Who knows, maybe the car can actually fly and we'll have to eat our boots or something lmaooo

Did we just find someone on the Roadster team?

I'm pretty sure Musk is teasing flying cars to hint at Tesla moving into the evtol space I to take away momentum from Joby (who have a hydrogen department) and Joby's stock valuation as people automatically assume Tesla and musk would partner with Archer because of the purely electric ethos Musk owns. I think Musk is scared of losing market share of Tesla's stock valuation to Joby. He always seems nervous when he talks about flying cars....I think he knows that the public is fickle and investors will flock to Joby once they learn more about the evtols military and Uber partnerships and headway.

there is the possibility that Tesla and archer are working on a ducted fan design for an evtol since Archer bought the Lilium patents and Archer leased the airport right beside Space X and Tesla design studios. I could see Musk going for that but I think it would be akin to a Roadster design, really just to develop hype for a product and work on a mass market vehicle afterwards. I think Musk is worried though because as soon as he unveils an Evtol people will become more aware of his competitors for in the electric vehicle space narrative....such as Joby, which can erode market share in regards to stock investments. I can see people jumping onto Joby stock as it can be seen as an analogy to Tesla in 2012, the profit potential could erode Tesla stock quite a lot, especially if Musk himself is endorsing the same transport medium.

The roadster is already a joke so why not disappoint us yet again on April fools, seems fitting…

He knows people are over it and don’t really care anymore. Therefore he feels like he needs to hype it like crazy. These new features will either never happen or be vastly different from his claims. And that’s if the car is ever released.

It's not a reveal of a production roadster. It's a reveal of yet another prototype. Production would indicate they plan to actually deliver it soon after, which they will not.

So......cancelled in order to pay Elon?