M
Matthew - Technology News Australia
Guest
Elon Musk's so-called flying Roadster sounds amazing for maybe ten seconds, until you actually stop and really think about how completely useless it would be in the real world.
Yeah, I get it. It can jump using compressed nitrogen for the rocket boosters—and from a pure engineering standpoint? Yeah, that is impressive.
But calling it a "flying car" is asking for way too much cred. Because honestly, this doesn't even look like the kind of flight most people picture when they hear the word aviation.
What it actually does is give itself one massive blast of thrust, float off the ground for a tiny moment, and then crash back down once that stored propellant (air) runs out.
So what we really have here isn't flying; we just have a Tesla that can jump. And based on the launch event footage, it does flips and drives upside down.
That might look killer on stage—with smoke machines, dramatic lighting, and Elon Musk standing there like he single-handedly beat gravity with his bare hands.
But what actual day-to-day use does any of that have? There is zero chance an average person is going to be firing rocket motors every morning just getting to work.
"The way those boosters fired was completely choreographed, like watching a highly rehearsed routine. It’s incredible timing, sure, but that's not something you can just wing; it requires an entirely pre-set, mathematical calculation."
People already struggle enough just driving normal cars—merging, finding parking spots, navigating roundabouts, or even judging the distance between two stationary objects.
How are we supposed to picture those same people safely wrestling a vehicle that can blast itself into the sky?
Picture this: Someone gets annoyed in traffic and decides they’ve had enough. Instead of changing lanes, they hit the "rocket button" and launch themselves over the car ahead.
Sounds funny until you remember that eventually, this thing has to come down somewhere—and hopefully, nowhere near another car, a pedestrian, a stoplight, or somebody's roof.
Then there’s the whole issue of fuel, which is where the whole idea really starts to unravel. The system only has a small pocket of stored air in that big tank in the trunk. This means you are not going to be cruising above traffic for half an hour.
You aren't sailing across town through the sky. You won't be hovering around looking for a decent parking spot. You get the initial blast, the car goes up, and then… fun time is over.
It’s less like flying and more like an extremely expensive, overly dramatic mechanical bunny hop. Once that pressure is gone congrats! You're driving a regular car again—except yours now has a complex propulsion system attached that probably cost a fortune and gave you maybe two seconds airborne. And for what?
It doesn't solve traffic. It doesn't make parking easier. It definitely doesn't simplify long-distance travel, and it certainly doesn't replace an actual airplane.
If anything, it just creates a whole new list of problems nobody needed to worry about before. Where are you even allowed to use this thing? How much overhead clearance do you need?
What happens if you enter a tunnel? Low bridges? What if someone activates it in a crowded shopping center parking lot?
What if there's a person standing behind the car when the thrusters kick on?
These aren't small questions when your sports car suddenly becomes nothing more than a pressure-powered projectile. You can already picture the owner’s manual being thicker than a phone book.
"Before activating rocket mode, check overhead clearance, confirm landing zone, secure all passengers, verify propellant pressure, remove nearby pedestrians, and make sure nobody is standing behind the vehicle." Sounds perfectly sensible, right?
Then there's the car itself. Honestly, for something supposed to represent the future of auto engineering, the Roadster looks pretty underwhelming.
For a groundbreaking machine that’s meant to change personal transport forever, it has this strange toy-like aesthetic. It looks more like some concept model you’d find sitting on a shelf at Kmart than some world-changing piece of tech.
It almost gives off that Lego vibe, like someone started building a futuristic sports car, ran out of pieces halfway through, and decided the sharp edges looked "advanced."
There are cars that look amazing just standing still. A Ferrari can sit in a showroom doing nothing at all and still look incredible. A Lamborghini can be parked with the engine off and still look ridiculously cool in exactly the right way.
The Roadster looks like someone asked a computer to draw "future car" and then happily accepted the very first result it spat out. Then, somebody apparently thought, "You know what this needs? Rocket motors."
Of course!
Because when your sports car already costs an insane amount of money and has limited real-world use, the obvious next step is to make it briefly fly.
The whole thing feels way less like a serious transport plan and more like Elon Musk walking into a room full of engineers and just joking, "Wouldn't it be funny if the car could jump?"
Someone probably tried to explain that there’s no real reason for a road car to hop, but they were probably ignored. Months or years later—after massive amounts of engineering, testing, pressure tanks, software coding, structural work, and money—we get the final product:
A jumping car.
That is a ridiculous amount of effort spent solving a problem that nobody actually had. And honestly? That’s probably what annoys me the most about this whole thing.
There are genuine transport problems begging for serious engineering investment, but instead, we get what is essentially a giant party trick.
The Roadster rocket system doesn't seem designed around practicality. It seems built entirely around creating a moment. The car blasts off. Everyone films it. Social media blows up. Headlines everywhere screaming that Tesla has invented the flying car.
Then the car lands, and suddenly nobody wants to talk about what you would actually do with it. Because the answer is basically nothing. You can't realistically use this for daily air travel because it’s not real air transport—it's just a quick blast of rocket power bolted onto a road car chassis. That doesn't make it useless as an engineering demo, though.
It's still technically interesting, and I doubt there isn't some clever work happening under the hood. But "clever engineering" and "useful engineering" are rarely the same thing.
You could build a jet-powered toaster—and it would probably be fascinating to look at. It would also be an absolutely ridiculous way to make breakfast. That’s pretty much where the flying Roadster sits right now.
It's using massive amounts of tech, money, and engineering just to achieve something that looks amazing for three seconds and then leaves everyone asking: Why? The answer is probably just that Elon Musk can. And maybe that’s the whole point.
This doesn't really feel like the future of getting around. It feels more like a billionaire's elaborate hobby project, built primarily to prove that Tesla can make a car do something completely unnecessary. There’s this definite "Look what I can do!" vibe running through it.
The Roadster doesn't need to solve anything because the show is the product. The fact that people are talking about it is probably more important than whether anybody could actually use it in daily life.
So yeah, the engineering is clever. Yeah, watching a car jump was entertaining. And sure, the videos will get millions of views.
But practical transport? Not even remotely close. It's basically the automotive equivalent of spending a fortune building the most advanced pogo stick ever—and then announcing you’ve revolutionized walking.
Yeah, I get it. It can jump using compressed nitrogen for the rocket boosters—and from a pure engineering standpoint? Yeah, that is impressive.
But calling it a "flying car" is asking for way too much cred. Because honestly, this doesn't even look like the kind of flight most people picture when they hear the word aviation.
What it actually does is give itself one massive blast of thrust, float off the ground for a tiny moment, and then crash back down once that stored propellant (air) runs out.
So what we really have here isn't flying; we just have a Tesla that can jump. And based on the launch event footage, it does flips and drives upside down.
That might look killer on stage—with smoke machines, dramatic lighting, and Elon Musk standing there like he single-handedly beat gravity with his bare hands.
But what actual day-to-day use does any of that have? There is zero chance an average person is going to be firing rocket motors every morning just getting to work.
"The way those boosters fired was completely choreographed, like watching a highly rehearsed routine. It’s incredible timing, sure, but that's not something you can just wing; it requires an entirely pre-set, mathematical calculation."
People already struggle enough just driving normal cars—merging, finding parking spots, navigating roundabouts, or even judging the distance between two stationary objects.
How are we supposed to picture those same people safely wrestling a vehicle that can blast itself into the sky?
Picture this: Someone gets annoyed in traffic and decides they’ve had enough. Instead of changing lanes, they hit the "rocket button" and launch themselves over the car ahead.
Sounds funny until you remember that eventually, this thing has to come down somewhere—and hopefully, nowhere near another car, a pedestrian, a stoplight, or somebody's roof.
Then there’s the whole issue of fuel, which is where the whole idea really starts to unravel. The system only has a small pocket of stored air in that big tank in the trunk. This means you are not going to be cruising above traffic for half an hour.
You aren't sailing across town through the sky. You won't be hovering around looking for a decent parking spot. You get the initial blast, the car goes up, and then… fun time is over.
It’s less like flying and more like an extremely expensive, overly dramatic mechanical bunny hop. Once that pressure is gone congrats! You're driving a regular car again—except yours now has a complex propulsion system attached that probably cost a fortune and gave you maybe two seconds airborne. And for what?
It doesn't solve traffic. It doesn't make parking easier. It definitely doesn't simplify long-distance travel, and it certainly doesn't replace an actual airplane.
If anything, it just creates a whole new list of problems nobody needed to worry about before. Where are you even allowed to use this thing? How much overhead clearance do you need?
What happens if you enter a tunnel? Low bridges? What if someone activates it in a crowded shopping center parking lot?
What if there's a person standing behind the car when the thrusters kick on?
These aren't small questions when your sports car suddenly becomes nothing more than a pressure-powered projectile. You can already picture the owner’s manual being thicker than a phone book.
"Before activating rocket mode, check overhead clearance, confirm landing zone, secure all passengers, verify propellant pressure, remove nearby pedestrians, and make sure nobody is standing behind the vehicle." Sounds perfectly sensible, right?
Then there's the car itself. Honestly, for something supposed to represent the future of auto engineering, the Roadster looks pretty underwhelming.
For a groundbreaking machine that’s meant to change personal transport forever, it has this strange toy-like aesthetic. It looks more like some concept model you’d find sitting on a shelf at Kmart than some world-changing piece of tech.
It almost gives off that Lego vibe, like someone started building a futuristic sports car, ran out of pieces halfway through, and decided the sharp edges looked "advanced."
There are cars that look amazing just standing still. A Ferrari can sit in a showroom doing nothing at all and still look incredible. A Lamborghini can be parked with the engine off and still look ridiculously cool in exactly the right way.
The Roadster looks like someone asked a computer to draw "future car" and then happily accepted the very first result it spat out. Then, somebody apparently thought, "You know what this needs? Rocket motors."
Of course!
Because when your sports car already costs an insane amount of money and has limited real-world use, the obvious next step is to make it briefly fly.
The whole thing feels way less like a serious transport plan and more like Elon Musk walking into a room full of engineers and just joking, "Wouldn't it be funny if the car could jump?"
Someone probably tried to explain that there’s no real reason for a road car to hop, but they were probably ignored. Months or years later—after massive amounts of engineering, testing, pressure tanks, software coding, structural work, and money—we get the final product:
A jumping car.
That is a ridiculous amount of effort spent solving a problem that nobody actually had. And honestly? That’s probably what annoys me the most about this whole thing.
There are genuine transport problems begging for serious engineering investment, but instead, we get what is essentially a giant party trick.
The Roadster rocket system doesn't seem designed around practicality. It seems built entirely around creating a moment. The car blasts off. Everyone films it. Social media blows up. Headlines everywhere screaming that Tesla has invented the flying car.
Then the car lands, and suddenly nobody wants to talk about what you would actually do with it. Because the answer is basically nothing. You can't realistically use this for daily air travel because it’s not real air transport—it's just a quick blast of rocket power bolted onto a road car chassis. That doesn't make it useless as an engineering demo, though.
It's still technically interesting, and I doubt there isn't some clever work happening under the hood. But "clever engineering" and "useful engineering" are rarely the same thing.
You could build a jet-powered toaster—and it would probably be fascinating to look at. It would also be an absolutely ridiculous way to make breakfast. That’s pretty much where the flying Roadster sits right now.
It's using massive amounts of tech, money, and engineering just to achieve something that looks amazing for three seconds and then leaves everyone asking: Why? The answer is probably just that Elon Musk can. And maybe that’s the whole point.
This doesn't really feel like the future of getting around. It feels more like a billionaire's elaborate hobby project, built primarily to prove that Tesla can make a car do something completely unnecessary. There’s this definite "Look what I can do!" vibe running through it.
The Roadster doesn't need to solve anything because the show is the product. The fact that people are talking about it is probably more important than whether anybody could actually use it in daily life.
So yeah, the engineering is clever. Yeah, watching a car jump was entertaining. And sure, the videos will get millions of views.
But practical transport? Not even remotely close. It's basically the automotive equivalent of spending a fortune building the most advanced pogo stick ever—and then announcing you’ve revolutionized walking.