Tesla unveils Roadster ‘flying car’

• Elon Musk’s Tesla unveiled a redesigned Roadster powered with rocket-style thrusters during a launch event at a SpaceX test facility in Texas on October 16.

• The next-generation version of Tesla’s electric sports car is developed in collaboration with SpaceX.

• It would start production in 2028.

• The white two-seater vehicle drove upside down on a ramp using a suction system, turned in the air and landed using built-in thrusters. 

• It used the thrusters to jump over a truck and other vehicles, twisting in the air during the maneuver.

• The car did not have a driver for the demo.

• The Roadster can accelerate from zero to 60 mph (97 kph) in less than one second and can hit a top speed of over 230 mph (370 kph).

• It can also travel over 300 miles (480 km) on a single charge. 

• The original Roadster, released in 2008 and on sale until 2012, was Tesla’s first-ever electric vehicle. 

• In 2017, Tesla first revealed a prototype of the second-generation Roadster. The unveiling of the Roadster was postponed many times.

Who is Elon Musk?

• Elon Musk is the CEO and co-founder of SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, X Corp and The Boring Company.

• Born in Pretoria, on June 28, 1971, the son of an engineer father and a Canadian-born model mother, Musk left South Africa in his late teens to attend Queen’s University in Ontario.

• He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania after two years and earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and business.

• After graduating from the prestigious Ivy League school, Musk abandoned plans to study at Stanford University.

• Instead, he dropped out and started Zip2, a company that made online publishing software for the media industry.

• He banked his first millions before the age of 30 when he sold Zip2 to US computer maker Compaq for more than $300 million in 1999.

• Musk’s next company, X.com, eventually merged with PayPal, the online payments firm bought by internet auction giant eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

• He founded SpaceX in 2002, now serving as its Chief Executive Officer, and became the chairman of electric carmaker Tesla in 2004.

• As lead designer at SpaceX, Elon oversees the development of rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and ultimately to other planets. The SpaceX Falcon 1 was the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit, in 2008. In 2017, SpaceX made further history by re-flying both a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft for the first time. By pioneering the development of reusable rockets, SpaceX is pursuing the long-term goal of making humans a multi-planet species.

• Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX.

• At Tesla, Musk leads all product design, engineering and global manufacturing of the company's electric vehicles, battery products and solar energy products.

• Neuralink is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.

• The Boring Company combines fast, affordable tunneling technology with an all-electric public transportation system in order to alleviate soul-crushing urban congestion and enable high-speed, long-distance travel.

• In 2022, Musk purchased social media platform Twitter and renamed it as X.