MKBHD shares his thoughts on ‘flying’ Tesla Roadster – and doesn’t hold back

It was only a few days ago that Tesla boss Elon Musk unveiled a ‘flying’ car which can become airborne – albeit with the help of compressed air boosters – and tech reviewer and YouTuber Marques Brownlee (known online as MKBHD) has shared his honest thoughts on the situation.

Unveiled at SpaceX’s Rocket Test and Development Center in McGregor, Texas on Thursday, the company said its new Roadster can reach 0 to 60mph in just 0.81 seconds.

It comes in three versions: Performance (which uses fans and “active aerodynamics”), the limited release Thrust (which adds “cold-gas thrusters in the rear” which gets it to the aforementioned 0.81 second speed), and the flying Rocket version (which is invite-only and not approved for public road use).

The car was seen heading up a curved ramp before landing back on the ground using rocket thrusters, and Musk said it will be “an actual car that’s on the roads”.

“I’m not sure it’s necessarily legal in all jurisdictions, but there will be such a car that someone can own. So, it’s going to be pretty wild that you can have a rocket car,” the tech entrepreneur said.

However, in a 22-minute video released on Saturday with Auto Focus, Brownlee said he was “on the fence” about whether the car could be “street legal”.

“I mean, I guess the law is the law – it’s either legal or it isn’t – but there are lots of roads where you probably would not want to use this system, because there are potholes, and bumps and imperfections and things like that,” he said.

Brownlee, who has more than 21 million YouTube subscribers, said the event was “one of maybe the most insane product demos of all-time”, but that it was “a distraction from the facts and figures that we got the next morning … on the Tesla Roadster itself”.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

He went on to add: “What I’m most concerned about is crash test safety. Like, cold gas thrusters and massive carbon-overlaid, compressed air canisters … what happens in the event of a safety incident when you have a massive balloon of 10,000 PSI compressed air next to your head? I don’t know what the plan is there.”

The content creator was also frank about the demonstration being “a stupid amount of work that essentially amounts to a party trick”.

“I think the craziness of how extreme that this event was, and how all-in they went on this crazy party trick is both figuratively and literally smoke and mirrors in front of abandoning the old Roadster that spent some unknown amount of time in development and is now just never coming out,” he said.

As a reminder, a prototype of the Roadster was revealed by Tesla in 2017, when it said deliveries would start in 2020, only for it to be hit by several delays.

Brownlee continued: “We shouldn’t ignore that there’s a reason that this 2020 Roadster went nine years and never actually came out, never actually existed. It’s because it doesn’t make a difference to the company if it comes out or not. It makes no difference to their bottom line, it’s so low volume.

“I’m not going to be holding my breath for this to suddenly become a priority, for them to start picking things up and start shipping this thing right on time.”

The YouTube video comes after Brownlee said Tesla “stopped talking to me” and had to source a Tesla Model Y Performance from a car dealership in order to review the vehicle.

Why not read…?

• Musk’s childish response as ‘flying’ Tesla Roadster called out by AI leader: ‘It’s completely impractical’
• Elon Musk’s latest claim about ‘flying' Tesla roadster leaves people in disbelief
• 15 biggest reactions to Tesla's new 'flying' Roadster

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