Tesla unveiled the SpaceX Roadster, which flies and falls with ease

The new car used the engines to leapfrog the Cybercube, Cybertruck, Tesla Semi, Model Y and Model 3 in Texas.

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Tesla just unveiled the second generation of its redesigned SpaceX-powered Roadster, a vehicle it calls "the best of the latest human-powered cars."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed off the car at an event outside Waco, Texas, with a demonstration in which the car used a combination of fans and high-powered thrusters to drive up a reverse ramp, spin around and land on the pavement below. The car also used the thrusters to lift itself onto a CyberCub, CyberTruck, Tesla Semi, Model Y, and Model 3 while on the move.

Musk said Tesla will finally build the long-delayed vehicle in 2028, but did not specify a price.

"It's going to be a real car on the road," Musk said of the car that Tesla showed could go from zero to 60 miles per hour in one second. "It literally inflates itself, and oh, and you can do this, do these maneuvers whenever you want."

Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravi said at the event that the Roadster uses 10 nozzles connected to 600 liters of compressed air to lift and rotate the car in the air. He said the air tank is rechargeable. Musk also said at the event that Tesla might try to jump the Snake River Canyon — the famous gap that Evel Knievel tried to jump in a steam rocket.

Musk has touted it as a true halo car for Tesla, hinting in one that he's "not sure it's going to move the needle that much from a revenue standpoint." But he has previously said that "safety is not the primary focus" of the new roadster.

"If you buy a Ferrari, safety is not your number one goal. I say if safety is your number one goal, don't buy a roadster," he said on a podcast earlier this year. Tesla "wishes not to kill anyone in this car," he said.

"This is the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers working closely together to create something you've never seen in a movie, better than any James Bond car," Musk said at the event. "I've never seen anything like that. You know, when I suggested this to the team, I thought, 'Am I crazy?'

Musk has previously claimed that the car will be "very different from what's been shown before" and promised that the demo will be "the most exciting demo of any product, whether it works or not." An earlier version of the reveal event reportedly involved driving upside down on a magnetized ramp before levitating, which the mask is said to have abandoned.

Tesla held the event nearly nine years after the company first unveiled the second-generation Roadster, a modern take on its first car. Tucked in as a surprise at the end of the Tesla Semi's 2017 unveiling, the company promised the revised Roadster would be delivered in just a few years. Tesla allowed customers to deposit $50,000 to reserve a car. Some even paid $250,000 to reserve one of the 1,000 "Founders Series" copies.

Musk first talked about adding engines to the car in 2018. "The SpaceX option package for the new Tesla Roadster includes 10 small rocket boosters arranged seamlessly around the car," he tweeted that year. These rocket motors dramatically improve acceleration, top speed, braking and cornering. Maybe even Tesla will be allowed to fly...

But the roadster project came in second place. Later that year, Tesla suffered what Musk eventually called "production hell" with the Model 3 sedan. The company then moved on to other projects, such as the Model Y SUV, which became the best-selling vehicle in the world, and the Cybertruck, which was a commercial failure by Tesla's own standards. Along the way, Musk pushed back the new roadster to 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024.

As Tesla moved away from the release of these new cars, Musk started talking again about the second-generation Roadster. Late last year, he said on Joe Rogan's podcast that he wanted to reveal it by the end of 2025. A week later, at a shareholder meeting where he was awarded a $1 trillion pay package, he postponed it to April 1, 2026. Musk gave him "some denial" at an April Fool's Day event if Tesla postponed the event again.

"Like, I can say I was joking," he said at the time. Tesla ended the disclosure by pressing again. The organization tried to hold the event on Oct. 1, but severe weather caused another delay.

These frequent delays have caused a number of prominent customers to speak up over the years

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