Elon’s “Flying” Tesla Roadster Was Movie Stunt Marketing

John Johnston (0:00)

Look at it, it's in the dark, lots of lights, very spectacular. It's a Hollywood stunt. In fact, Hollywood must be looking at this, being very impressed by it. Obviously took months, some of the top engineering talent to do this. Smacks of classic Elon, in terms of the flashiness, the stunt, the circus act, really. Other stock pumps wearing thin, perhaps. Hi everyone, JJ here. Welcome back to the lounge. Well, of course, I can't go any further without doing an episode about the new Roadster, Tesla Roadster demo, though that's not what it was. It wasn't really a demo. When will it actually be made? It's been nine years since the first unveiling. They've ditched the design. They've gone to this new design, which is Lambo like, let's say.

And the demo itself was more Hollywood stunt. I mean, it really was right. When you look at what they were doing, this would fit into a Hollywood movie. In fact, Hollywood must be looking at this, being very impressed by it. Obviously, it took months. Some of the top engineering talent to do this, right? You can see what it was. They had the ramp where it flew off the ramp. And well, control fall using those thrusters really is more drone like. So nobody's going to be able to do this in real life. But people say that's not the point. It did showcase the engineering, but there was more to that. The fact that it was at night, you know, the lights all lit up and it was more movie set than anything else. And then we had the kick flip where it jumped over the test of vehicles. Of course, people aren't going to be able to do this. There's a lot of memes that broke the internet as intended. Could say that it was timed specifically for this particular weekend with that Critical Musk documentary coming out. And Marques Brownlee has talked about this and he has been lambasted on the internet for being critical. But I think it is an honest reaction. He says it's my honest reaction.

And we'll go back to this because he does say some interesting things. He breaks down the tech, which I'm not going to do here. I'll put a link to his video if you haven't seen that. He breaks it down really well. But of course, the Tesla fan voice had been out in force. And Fred Lambert has defended. Marquez is calling it hate to hate videos, misguided, and highlights the nearly insurmountable issue that Tesla community has with criticism. There was plenty to criticize about the unveiling. And I thought Marquez did an incredible job. He is becoming a great force, pushing against the growing movement in tech and now automotive of over promising and under delivering, which is what Elon's been doing. Promising, literally, I was going to say promising the moon, but promising Mars and then scaling back to the moon and not there yet with SpaceX. And this is using SpaceX technology. I mean, is this a car cover? They like the cover of car, but it's really a drone for the demo using those thrusters and the tech. It's not new. I've seen some videos that people have posted of Lockheed Martin decades ago, testing out this kind of tech for a flying craft.

And we have, as Marquez Brownlee points out in that video, another car company doing the fan, the fan system, which sucks it to the road. We saw the ramp hanging upside down. That's what that was. But very impressive demo that surprised a lot of people and broke the internet, which is as designed by Elon at the absolute best effect. So Elon says, turns out the future does have flying cars. And then we have the flip. But other people have joined in. Jan Lekoon asks, hydrogen peroxide. Then he says, okay, so it's compressed air. Easier, but crappy specific impulse, less than 50 seconds, even assuming that 50% of the mass of the car is the compressed air. That gives you less than 10 seconds of useful thrust with thrust to weight ratio larger than one. Probably more like five seconds, actually. So the car must be an empty lightweight shell containing big compressed air tanks. Cute demo, but totally impractical, but of course, you knew that, and that's what the fanboys are saying. That doesn't matter about that, the practicality of it. It was an amazing demo featuring the engineering and Tesla and SpaceX. Looked like they're gonna merge, so was it about that? It was a demo to say, look at our amazing tech together.

But in terms of selling a car, and they have come out with different versions of the car, which Marques Brownlee goes into.