> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.borealian.ca/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Tesla’s flying Roadster: An incredible feat, loose on details - URL: https://www.borealian.ca/tesla-roadster-demo-spectacle-no-price/ - Published: 2026-10-16T22:26:08.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-16T22:26:08.000Z - Description: Musk flipped a car upside down in Texas and promised production in 2028. The market gave back its morning cheer within hours, and Oct. 21 is the real test. - Author: Beaverbrook - Tags: Business & Markets On Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7:55 p.m. CT in McGregor, Texas, Tesla revealed the Roadster prototype. In a spectacle that felt more like an AI fever dream than Tesla demonstrated the Roadster's capabilities. 0-60 mph in 0.81 seconds; it aims to travel at Mach 0.5 (384 mph); it can fly upside down...it can fly. It is heralded as the most advanced production car ever, which may turn out to be the understatement of this century. Moving past the hype and the headlines, it can be agreed that Thursday's exhibition was more of a publicity stunt than anything else. The Roadster will be released in two versions. *Thrust* will be a ground-bound performance car with a cold oxygen boost to allow takeoffs from 0-60 mph in 1 second or less. *Rocket* will have all the abilities of Thrust, with the added feature of “upward acceleration as well as lateral rotational movement” (flight). Rocket ownership is invite-only, and it is currently not street legal. Tesla began taking US$ 50,000 deposits for new Roadsters nine years ago, with an original production date of 2020\. What we now know is production will begin in 2028, although we still do not know the first delivery date or the price. The first investor verdicts treated the night as marketing with engineering attached. Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management wrote on X that “it was an engineering flex with no commercial value beyond embarrassing traditional car makers,” [Reuters reported](https://ca.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/teslas-new-roadster-turns-in-air-with-spacex-thrusters-wont-land-until-2028-4884724?ref=borealian.ca). Mamta Valechha of Quilter Cheviot told [Euronews](https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/16/could-teslas-flying-car-send-sales-and-shares-soaring?ref=borealian.ca) that “the commercial value is likely to be strengthening Tesla’s innovation narrative rather than generating meaningful profits.” ING’s Rico Luman called it “a publicity stunt” that offers brand value. The car’s backers say brand value is the whole point of the Roadster, turning it into a *halo car*. Morningstar’s Seth Goldstein wrote in September that “the Roadster will be Tesla’s new halo car.” Halo cars are the aspirational cars that sell the cheaper models parked beside them. That was definitely the role of the original Roadster, and in some ways that role was inherited by the Cybertruck, but even a halo needs a sticker, and Tesla still has no price for the Roadster. The market has mixed reactions to the new Roadster demo. Tesla closed at US$362.44 on Thursday, before the event, and rose as much as about 5.4 per cent before Friday’s open, [TradingNews](https://www.tradingnews.com/news/tsla-359-usd-falls-below-thursday-close-after-flying-roadster-reveal-earnings-set-the-next-move?ref=borealian.ca) reported. In early-afternoon trading, at 1:44 p.m. ET, it was at US$353.82, down about 2.4 per cent from Thursday’s close, according to [Yahoo Finance](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/history/?ref=borealian.ca). JPMorgan kept its [Neutral rating](https://www.investing.com/news/analyst-ratings/jpmorgan-reiterates-tesla-stock-rating-keeps-415-price-target-93CH-4953366?ref=borealian.ca) and US$415 target, and no analyst upgrade tied to the event has appeared so far. EToro’s Josh Gilbert told Reuters that “the margin and cash flow numbers will carry far more weight with investors than anything they saw at the reveal,” and Friday’s trading bore him out. Tesla reopened Roadster reservations in recent weeks, taking US$50,000 deposits from buyers in the U.S., Canada, and China. Time will tell if Thursday's demo will spur customer interest in the Roadster, and it is probably no accident that Tesla chose a demo date one week before their earnings call on Wednesday, Oct. 21\. Some things we know for sure. Timelines are not Elon's strong suit. Nearly every new Tesla model has been delayed by months or years. Nevertheless, delays do not deter Tesla, nor do they limit Tesla's ambition. The Roadster that depositors receive in 2028/29 will be materially more advanced than the one promised for 2020 (albeit with a larger price tag). The Roadster squarely puts Tesla into a league of its own. At this point, Ford, Stellantis, or Volkswagen, who are all retreating from the electric vehicle market, eyeing layoffs, and doubling down on legacy models, seem to be increasingly unreliable benchmarks for comparison. Finally, this rocket-car Roadster will only fuel speculation of an upcoming SpaceX-Tesla merger. Regardless of any merger prospects, we must take a step back to consider the greater Musk business empire. SpaceX/xAI, Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and others subsumed by these brands. It is hard to comprehend another non-state entity with a breadth and integration potential as the Musk empire. AI, space, energy, and transportation are some of the highest projected growth sectors over the next decade. The 2028 Roadster is more than just a car. It is arguably the first product that demonstrates what is possible in a consolidated Musk empire. A Tesla product with xAI compute and SpaceX hardware. Imagine, in a few years, layering Neuralink human-computer integration and a physical built environment by the Boring Company. Imagine the levels of technical integration possible by a single conglomerate that owns the entire *existence stack*. There are few other companies on Earth that have this reach and are as well capitalized. The Roadster may have been the prelude to an era of Musk-company total economic dominance.