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A Tesla Roadster drives up a ramp, hangs upside down, then uses thrusters to turn through the air and land. That happened at Tesla’s October 15 unveiling in Texas. On October 17, it’s the Tesla headline I want to talk about—and I have a clear verdict: spectacular demonstration, lousy reason to trust another Roadster deadline.
Tesla showed a redesigned prototype developed with Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX. The car used a suction system to cling to an inverted ramp, then thrusters to maneuver and land. It later jumped over other vehicles. Tesla says it will offer three versions: Performance, Thrust and a single-seat, invite-only Rocket version. Executives claimed acceleration to 60 miles per hour in under a second and a top speed above 230 miles per hour. Those are claims about a prototype and a future car—not independently established specifications for one you can buy today.
Here is the part the smoke machine cannot conceal. Tesla first showed the second-generation Roadster in 2017 and initially promised deliveries in 2020. At this unveiling, Musk said production would start in 2028. There was no new target price. After the event, Tesla’s reservation page listed deposits of 50,000 dollars for Performance and 250,000 dollars for Thrust. A deposit is not a delivered car, and it is not a final purchase price.
My opinion? The engineering is thrilling. The sales pitch is ridiculous. Driving upside down and briefly flying are magnificent party tricks; they do not erase years of missed deadlines. I would not put down a huge deposit on the strength of this show. Tesla gets credit for making something genuinely surprising. It does not get credit, yet, for making it a dependable product.
And the business question is bigger than one sports car. Reuters reported on October 16 that Tesla has been shifting attention toward self-driving technology and robotics while sales of its aging electric-vehicle lineup have declined over the past two years. Third-quarter results were scheduled for October 21. Analyst Josh Gilbert told Reuters that margins and cash flow would matter far more to investors than the reveal. He’s right. My bottom line: enjoy the flight, but judge Tesla by what it builds, delivers and earns—not by how high its prototype jumps.