Flying Tesla Roadster

[EEVblog]

Wow, they actually did it 

[Psi]

Yeah my jaw was on the floor, and I was expecting something big 

[Andy Chee]

Has anyone yet done the back of the envelope calculations to determine how much thrust and size of propellant tank (or compressed air) was expended to perform such a maneuver?

[EEVblog]

Has anyone yet done the back of the envelope calculations to determine how much thrust and size of propellant tank (or compressed air) was expended to perform such a maneuver?

Thunderf00t did a video on about 7 years ago with some calcs I think.

[golden_labels]

If that was any other company, I’d count that as a proud display of engineers’ abilities. Useless, but showing how they are pushing the boundaries. But it’s Musk.

Still, congratulations to the engineers! Whatever I may think of his companies and their owner, one side effect is accumulation of great minds flooded in money. Amazing things may emerge from that mix.

So now the question is: if we stop ridiculing the “flying” part, and stop praising the control systems (it’s really the only value there), what useful things we may expect to come out of what we just saw?

[krish2487]

Kudos to the engineers.. Its a really cool display of engineering..
The skeptic in me thinks its a sales pitch for more funding for Musk.. I fail to see any practical applications for this in the near future..
We havent yet found a way to regulate driverless cars and sort out the legalities with that mess.. and people, actual people cant drive on terra firma properly.. and now we are making them very low earth orbit pilots? 

but a cool display of engineering abilities nevertheless...

[Psi]

It's pretty obvious the flying rocket stuff will be for organized events/stunt show, not on the road.
And the downforce + side/rear rocket stuff will just be for the track.
But damn it's cool. Like Trackmania or Back to the future in real life

Just imagine what the crazy people in Dubai will do with it

[krish2487]

It's pretty obvious the flying rocket stuff will be for organized events/stunt show, not on the road.
And the downforce + side/rear rocket stuff will just be for the track.
But damn it's cool. Like Trackmania or Back to the future in real life

Just imagine what the crazy people in Dubai will do with it

Noone accused Musk of having common sense.. 

[Siwastaja]

Would be interested to know how many cars they wrecked before the successful filming. Nowadays you can do some serious simulations so not necessarily many.

[Psi]

Would be interested to know how many cars they wrecked before the successful filming. Nowadays you can do some serious simulations so not necessarily many.

AFAIK the footage was it happening live for the people at the actual event, not a replay of a successful prior attempt, but yes, i'm sure they were many tests beforehand to get it to that point. And some failures.

Yeah,  the SpaceX cold gas reaction control thruster and COPV tech all makes sense and is proven tech, there's nothing stopping you putting it on a car and having it control that body in 3D space instead of a space ship. It's just that no one was stupid/smart enough to actually try. Until now.

Say what you want about Musk but damn, after that Cybertruck window disaster you'd think he would be scared of doing risky live demo's.  Obviously not.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Would be interested to know how many cars they wrecked before the successful filming. Nowadays you can do some serious simulations so not necessarily many.

There was at least one drop-crash-explode shown in the development footage montage they showed.
I wonder how representative this was of the real car - I suspect they may have reduced the battery size, no passenger, no seats, etc,. to reduce weight

[Psi]

Would be interested to know how many cars they wrecked before the successful filming. Nowadays you can do some serious simulations so not necessarily many.

There was at least one drop-crash-explode shown in the development footage montage they showed.
I wonder how representative this was of the real car - I suspect they may have reduced the battery size, no passenger, no seats, etc,. to reduce weight

Depends what you mean by the real car.
It shows 3 configs on the Tesla website, the normal config wont have any rockets or downforce fans.
I imagine the flying one will be a special order by people putting on crazy car/stunt shows. I can see Dubai getting many of them. lol

You can see the HUGE C.O.P.V cylinder here

[default0.0player]

What's the Specific Impulse (Isp) of the rockets?

[mikeselectricstuff]

I saw a figure of 5500PSI somewhere - that could get interesting in a crash.
An onboard compressor was mentioned - I wonder how long it takes to recharge

[bradyok]

That's pretty impressive, who else is getting one? I've had the S Plaid since 2022 and was waiting for a refresh to get another S and then they discontinued it. I've looked around and there's really only like the Taycan Turbo S and Lucid Air Sapphire that are comparable to the S while still having some self driving features? Performance package is fine, the Thrust package is insane. It's not being produced until *hopefully* 2028 though so it's probably stupid to reserve it today with the 50K, there can't be THAT much demand for this thing! And there are still no specs! I wanted to get the Cybertruck but then once it came out it had much worse range than promised, they said 500+ and it has like 320! Hopefully battery technology will improve enough by 2028 to deliver a decent range!

[tom66]

I saw a figure of 5500PSI somewhere - that could get interesting in a crash.
An onboard compressor was mentioned - I wonder how long it takes to recharge

Hydrogen cars have 10000psi tanks and pass crash safety tests and are still commercially sold.
(Not that it makes hydrogen cars any less stupid, but there's precedent for it, at least.)

Where is that crash montage video?  I couldn't find it on YT.

I wonder if the Roadster had anyone in it for the demonstration or if it was all remote controlled.

[mawyatt]

Need to see if the labs CEO new Y can do that!!

She got "hijacked" the other day by the "autonomous driver" on the way back from town. Still quite amazing "feature".

Anyway, impressive demo.

Best

[mikeselectricstuff]

Where is that crash montage video?  I couldn't find it on YT.

Copy at start of this vid

[hans]

Those rockets were really something! So cool.

Not to kill excitement, but fan cars have already been built: https://youtu.be/NDfKhBcGh9w?si=A1cZOJoK3uWigT62&t=320
The Spéirling does 0-60mph in 1.5-ish seconds. The video I linked shows speed in mph. It reaching 260km/h+ on more than one occasion is absolute insane, the Top Gear test track is pretty tight and twitchy. Its also a few seconds faster than a 2004 F1 car, when that was near its peak in terms of "pure" engineering (atmospheric V10 and pretty developed aerodynamics for its time).

That McMurty car "only" has 1000bhp max, but for some demo's its limited.  So with 1300+ hp.. I can believe this Tesla can do 0-60mph in 1 second.
edit: oh, the 1.1s sprint is with rocket propulsion.. I'm a bit disappointed.

That car can also hover upside down. Unfortunately McMurtry doesn't have more budget than sense available for shows

[golden_labels]

Louis-Sebastien Lenormand and Franz Reichelt trusted the creations they displayed to the public. I never saw Musk sitting behind the Cybertruck window or in a flipping Roadster.

[tom66]

Some back of the envelope calculations involving AI suggest that it'd need over an hour to recharge a 5500psi air tank using ambient air, which is probably why they have two cars.  That'd involve a 30kW four-stage compressor with intercoolers and dryers.  Suffice to say, it's purely for tricks, and off road.  You're not hopping through intersections to beat the traffic!

[bradyok]

Some back of the envelope calculations involving AI suggest that it'd need over an hour to recharge a 5500psi air tank using ambient air, which is probably why they have two cars.  That'd involve a 30kW four-stage compressor with intercoolers and dryers.  Suffice to say, it's purely for tricks, and off road.  You're not hopping through intersections to beat the traffic!

It's 10,000 PSI capacity according to this video: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1ErSGq7uHT/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[EEVblog]

So now the question is: if we stop ridiculing the “flying” part, and stop praising the control systems (it’s really the only value there), what useful things we may expect to come out of what we just saw?

Obviously it'll be (if they ship it) a new Roadster with extra down force fans, which means, as they said in the promo, it will smoke every track record in history and be the cool new rich tech toy.
Of course the cold gas thrusters aren't going to ship on the car, it's just a very cool stunt.

[Psi]

8 hours to fully recharge the air tanks apparently, but they plan to improve this to 1-2 hours

[EEVblog]

I wonder how loud this thing is in it's various forms? Also the noise when charging?