The Tesla Roadster drove upside down, flew and did a kickflip over Tesla’s entire commercial lineup at its reveal. Now Elon Musk says owners will be able to ask the car to do those tricks on its own, and Tesla will build a looping track in Texas to try them on. Meanwhile, Tesla’s chief designer says the car only gets a “limited version” of FSD. Sentient stunt car, part-time chauffeur. Let’s unpack.
“It will be sentient”
Two days after the October 15 unveiling at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas, test site, Musk replied to tech commentator Robert Scoble on X with this:
“True. You will be able to ask the Roadster to perform any of the tricks shown autonomously, as it will be sentient. Also, we will have a wild looping track (crazier even than Hot Wheels) at our Texas HQ where you can test out your Roadster.” — Elon Musk on X
Sentient is classic Musk hyperbole, but the substance has a basis. As Not a Tesla App notes, every stunt at the event was already performed autonomously. Musk said that was “to make sure we don’t kill anyone.” Tesla hasn’t said what software ran those stunts.
A Hot Wheels loop for grown-ups
At the reveal, Tesla used roughly half of an inverted loop. The Roadster drove up the ramp and stuck to it upside down, thanks to a fan-powered suction system that can pull up to 2 g. Then it drove off the end fully inverted, flipped itself upright with cold-gas thrusters, hovered briefly and landed on its tires. The planned track at Tesla’s Texas headquarters would add a full loop and more.
The fine print matters here. Musk didn’t give a timeline or say which trims would be allowed on the track. Not a Tesla App points out that the Performance trim has no thrusters, and the base Roadster won’t get the ground-effect downforce tech that makes upside-down driving possible. So the full circus act may be reserved for the top-spec car.
Snake River, Grand Canyon, half the speed of sound
Musk didn’t stop at the track. He also floated future demos like “flying over the Snake River or maybe Grand Canyon and landing on its wheels.” That’s a nod to Evel Knievel’s famous Snake River Canyon jump, which he’d mentioned at the reveal too. On speed, per Not a Tesla App, the Roadster’s top speed currently sits at 214 mph with a 330 mph version planned. Musk wants it to eventually exceed half the speed of sound, about 383 mph. For reference, that’s faster than most small planes cruise.
Wait, only “limited” FSD?
Here’s the twist. In a MotorTrend walkthrough highlighted by Not a Tesla App, Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen was asked whether the car’s cameras mean FSD support. “This will do a limited version of FSD,” he said. He blamed “the extreme windshield and idea of just being a performance driving car,” and added that “the camera and hardware is there.” He didn’t say which features would be left out.
Not a Tesla App reads it as a volume question too. Analyst estimates put Roadster production around 2,000 a year once it starts in 2028, well below even the Cybertruck. Training full FSD for a low-slung, wing-and-fan-equipped wedge that sells in small numbers is hard to justify.
Drive Tesla Canada spotted the irony. At the unveiling, Musk said the Roadster would eventually be the only manually driven vehicle Tesla makes. Now it’s also the one that does backflips by itself. The car has steer-by-wire, brake-by-wire and throttle-by-wire, so a computer can be in charge of every input whenever it’s asked to be.
The EVX News take
There’s no real contradiction. The Roadster is a driver’s car built on a robot’s nervous system. You drive it on the road. When you want to show off, you let the machine do the stuff that would get a human killed. A “limited” FSD on a 2,000-a-year hypercar is a sensible engineering call, not a retreat. And a Tesla-built loop track in Texas is pure Musk showmanship, the kind that turns a car launch into a destination. Production is still targeted for 2028, so there’s plenty of time for the track to go from tweet to concrete. We’ll be watching for the first construction drone footage.
Japanese readers: Tesla Japan is taking reservations for the Performance trim. We broke down what the ¥6.82 million reservation buys in our Japan story.
Sources: Elon Musk on X, Not a Tesla App (track), Not a Tesla App (FSD), Drive Tesla Canada, InsideEVs.
— The EVX News team
Featured image: Tesla, via Tesla on X.
