Tesla’s long-delayed Roadster finally made an entrance — by flying off a ramp.
At a livestreamed event Thursday night, the sports car climbed a curved ramp until it was upside down, launched into the air, flipped, and landed on its wheels, apparently aided by thrusters beneath the vehicle.
“Well, it worked,” Elon Musk said during the livestream.
Musk said Tesla and SpaceX engineers collaborated on the car, which uses high-pressure air and thrusters to lift itself off the ground. Tesla also showed a recorded demonstration in which the Roadster reached 60 mph in 0.81 seconds.
While the legality of such a device on public roads remains in question, the tech world is reacting to Musk's new creation with awe.
Here is what the leading voices in business and tech are saying about the new Roadster.
Jason Calacanis
Angel investor Jason Calacanis said in an X post that the videos of the flying car looked like "science fiction," and they're real, although they don't seem to be.
He seemed enthused by the demonstration, asking that while the car was only airborne for a couple of seconds, "what if it could keep you in the air for five minutes? Or ten? Or 30?"
Gene Munster
Gene Munster, the managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management and a longtime tech analyst, wrote his two takeaways from the Roadster event on X.
First, that "it was an engineering flex with no commercial value beyond embarrassing traditional car makers."
And the second was that it signaled Musk's ambition to merge his two publicly traded companies, SpaceX and Tesla.
John Carmack
John Carmack, the former CTO of Meta's virtual reality division, politely rejected the flying car.
"That demo involved a non trivial chance of embarrassing failure!" he wrote on X.
He added, "I'm only going for the baseline model. At this point in my life, rocket bunny hops are out of my comfort zone."
Marques Brownlee
Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD, appeared incredulous at Tesla's claims about the new Roadster.
"They really just got on stage and said this newly designed 4000+ pound car can do flips and go half the speed of sound (380+mph) and will ship in 2028," he wrote on X. "This is a prank, right?"
Alexandr Wang
Meta's chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, had one burning question after watching Tesla's Roadster demonstration.
"wait who the hell was driving the tesla," Wang wrote on X, sharing footage of the car speeding down a dark track.
Dan Ives
Dan Ives, an analyst at Yorkville Ives and a longtime Tesla bull, said the Roadster reveal was "a statement about where the Tesla and SpaceX engineering stacks are headed together."
He wrote that the car's SpaceX-developed hardware was "a small example of the synergies between Tesla and SpaceX."
Still, he said, "The Roadster will not move the volume or revenue needle," but would "restore the brand halo at the top of the market."
David Marcus
David Marcus, the former PayPal president and Meta executive, credited Musk with bringing a sense of awe back to technology.
"The thing I’m most grateful to Elon for is bringing back an age of wonder and excitement to humanity," Marcus wrote on X, sharing Tesla's Roadster demonstration.
"That was jaw-dropping awesome! Screams and mouths wide open in the audience. Nuts."
Sam Altman
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, appeared to momentarily set aside his long-running beef with Musk to congratulate the Tesla boss.
"Wow the new roadster looks quite amazing, good job @elonmusk," Altman wrote in a Friday X post.
Altman had reserved an earlier version of the Roadster but said in October 2025 that he had canceled it after waiting 7.5 years, prompting a public exchange of barbs with Musk.
Musk was a cofounder and early financial backer of OpenAI, but he left the company's board in 2018 and has become critical of Altman's leadership.
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Aditi is a news reporter at Business Insider’s Singapore bureau. She covers hustle culture and the future of work, focusing on how AI and technology are reshaping jobs, careers, and workplaces.She previously worked for The Straits Times, where she wrote breaking news stories for the Singapore desk. She studied communications and business at Nanyang Technological University.
Katherine Li is a reporter on Business Insider's West Coast business news team. She covers career, the future of work, and how AI is changing hiring practices and workplace trends.Previously, she was a newsroom fellow who wrote international breaking news and produced newsletters for Semafor. Before that, she wrote about climate policies for The Lever, covered the AAPI community for the SF Chronicle as a freelancer, and wrote about the 2019 Hong Kong protests as an intern for The New York Times.She is an alumna of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley and a graduate of the international journalism program at Hong Kong Baptist University with minors in French and English literature. Email Katherine at katherineli@insider.com and follow her on Bluesky @katherineli.bsky.social.
Thibault is a tech reporter at Business Insider's London office.He covers the intersection of technology and work — focusing on AI’s impact on the workplace, job and cognitive skills, and how economic changes are affecting careers.Before moving to the trending team, Thibault covered international affairs, including the Russia-Ukraine war, tensions in the South China Sea, and Russia’s economy on the news desk.He has previously worked at the Daily Express and held internships at Agence France-Presse, Politico Europe, and Factal.Il parle français. Habla español.Email Thibault at tspirlet@businessinsider.com, connect with him on LinkedIn @ThibaultSpirlet, or follow him on X @ThibaultSpirlet and BlueSky @thibaultspirlet.bsky.social.Expertise
- AI and the future of work
- Job and cognitive skills in the AI economy
- Workforce trends
- First-person, "as-told-to" stories