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Elon Musk is forking over generational wealth to Republicans facing tough midterm elections this cycle.
Over two donations in September, Musk gave a combined $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Republicans, which has, in turn, given reams of cash to funds supporting the Republican candidate in Texas.
The money, shown in new federal disclosure forms, cements Musk as a major player in Republican politics over a year after he publicly split with President Donald Trump over the latter's handling of the Epstein files (though the two have since reconciled).
Republicans are facing serious headwinds over the Iran war, rising inflation, and sky-high gas prices. Polls show that American voters are largely dissatisfied with Trump's leadership and handling of the economy.
All told, Musk has given about $276 million since July. Much of Musk's political donations have ended up in Texas, according to federal disclosure forms, where embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton is engaged in a mudslinging battle for the Senate with state representative James Talarico.
One day after Musk notched a $75 million donation to the Senate Leadership Fund, the Super PAC gave a $75 million donation to the Texas PAC, a group aligned with Paxton.
Then, also in September, another $83 million donation by Musk was matched the next day by an identical donation to the Texas PAC, according to federal disclosure forms.
Talarico's campaign, meanwhile, has raised about $129 million.
Musk's companies are already investing billions in the Lone Star State, as the business magnate builds SpaceX's terafab semiconductor facility outside Houston.
In 2024, Musk announced that he was moving SpaceX's headquarters from California to Texas in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom's policies on gender identity.
Representatives for Paxton and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, said last year that he had probably "done enough" political spending, though he left the door open.
"Well, if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I'll do it. I don't currently see a reason," he told Bloomberg at the time.
Pensavate che le auto volanti fossero solo fantascienza? E invece eccoci qua. Dopo nove anni di rinvii e promesse disattese, Elon Musk ha deciso di forzare il confine ingegneristico che separa il settore automobilistico da quello aerospaziale. Durante un evento organizzato nella notte italiana presso il centro di collaudo di SpaceX a McGregor, in Texas, il magnate ha svelato la seconda generazione della sportiva Tesla Roadster. “In sostanza, può volare come un razzo”, ha dichiarato il miliardario presentando la vettura come il frutto della collaborazione tra “la miglior Casa automobilistica e la miglior compagnia di razzi spaziali”.
Per supportare le affermazioni, Musk ha allestito un’esibizione dal vivo, eseguita dalla vettura in modalità autonoma per rigorose ragioni di sicurezza. Equipaggiata con dieci micro-razzi a gas freddo sviluppati con SpaceX, la Roadster è salita su una rampa curva, ha spiccato il volo, ha saltato cinque veicoli parcheggiati eseguendo una piroetta a mezz’aria, per poi atterrare in modo controllato.
L'articolo “Ecco la prima auto volante, può sfrecciare come un razzo”: l’annuncio choc di Elon Musk e la dimostrazione delle acrobazie in aria della Tesla Roadster – VIDEO proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Tesla
Tesla just unveiled the revived Roadster.
Sound familiar? It certainly should.
On Thursday, CEO Elon Musk took the covers off the latest version of Tesla's halo sports car and said the EV maker is eyeing production in 2028.
It's the second time the company has unveiled a prototype vehicle that it says will carry on the Roadster nameplate. In 2017, Musk unveiled a smoother-looking and very different type of Roadster.
Tesla
The 2017 version simply drove onto a stage next to Elon, then spun its tires and raced away. The 2028 version — on a track placed a safe distance away from spectators — drove up a vertical wall, hung upside down, hovered in the air, and did a "kick flip" over a line of other Teslas.
Turns out, a lot can change in nine extra years of product development.
A lot of the nuts and bolts powering the Roadster changed — and so did the car's metrics. So, we put together a chart comparing Tesla's old Roadster promises with the new ones.
Here's what we found:
| Metric or feature | 2017 Roadster | 2028 Roadster |
| Range | 620 miles | 310 to 320 miles |
| 0-to-60 speed | 1.9 seconds | 0.8 seconds |
| Top speed | Above 250 MPH | 214 MPH "for now" |
| Drivetrain | Three motors, all-wheel drive | Two motors, rear-wheel drive only |
| Battery size | 200 kWh | Not specified |
| Charging | Not specified | 15% to 85% in 10 minutes, nearly 500 kW |
| Seating | Two front seats, two rear seats | Two front seats; Rocket trim only has one |
| Variants | Founder Series, SpaceX trim option | Performance, Thrust, and Rocket |
| Flying/Hopping | Not demonstrated | Demonstrated autonomously |
| Price | $250,000 for the Founder Series | Not specified |
Tesla
Want to physically drive a Tesla in the future? Get ready to pay up.
On Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the new Roadster with a gravity-defying demo. The car suctioned to the side of a vertical ramp, drove upside down, briefly flew, stuck the landing, and later bunny-hopped and twirled over a standing lineup of other Tesla vehicles.
The stunts were choreographed with autonomy, Musk said — but Roadster owners will eventually be able to manually take the wheel. That will make it unique in Tesla's lineup.
"This will actually be, long-term, the only manually driven car that Tesla makes," Musk said on stage, before Tesla's lead engineer, Lars Moravy, added, "You gotta have some fun sometimes."
Tesla hasn't revealed the car's final price, but we know it'll firmly be in the luxury supercar tier. The company's reservation queue asks customers who want the base Performance trim to fork over a $50,000, due within 10 days. That reservation, alone, is nearly the price of an average car in America, and it doesn't capture the car's final price. Our best pricing ballpark dates back to 2017, when Tesla first said it was bringing back the Roadster. At the time, the automaker collected $250,000 payments from people who wanted a Founder Series model.
Meanwhile, Tesla has been ramping up its autonomy push for its more price-conscious vehicles.
In September, it started rolling out the Cybercab — a vehicle that leans so heavily into self-driving that it has no steering wheel, brake pedals, or side mirrors. Tesla says it wants to eventually sell those cars to consumers at less than $30,000 apiece.
On recent earnings calls, Musk has also praised the recurring revenue from subscriptions of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) from Cybertruck, Model Y, and Model 3 owners.
Musk has talked a lot about a world where driving becomes obsolete. He has compared driving a car to operating an elevator, a profession that was largely phased out in the mid-20th century as elevators became automated.
"Now, you just get in, press a button and a modern elevator, if inspected regularly, is extremely safe," he wrote on X in March.
Treating driving like elevator operation requires a pretty big leap. Driving is still a hobby, a sport, and — for many people — a point of pride. By Moravy's own admission, driving is fun.
There's still a chance in Musk's vision of his carmaker's future that drivers can control their own Tesla and lean into that fun. They'll just need to open their checkbooks.
Tesla vuelve a situar su deportivo Roadster en el centro de la atención con una propuesta que combina propulsores desarrollados junto a SpaceX y que promete llevar la conducción a otro nivel. La nueva generación del vehículo, desarrollada con la participación de SpaceX, podrá separarse del suelo y ejecutar movimientos en el aire. Su versión más potente promete, además, alcanzar casi los 100 kilómetros por hora en menos de un segundo.
El fabricante estadounidense ha mostrado el automóvil este jueves en las instalaciones de pruebas de cohetes de SpaceX en McGregor, Texas, donde mostró algunas de las capacidades del automóvil. El proyecto, anunciado inicialmente en 2017, acumula casi nueve años de retrasos y Tesla prevé comenzar su producción en 2028, aunque todavía no ha concretado el precio definitivo.
La presentación incluyó una demostración en la que el deportivo utilizó sus propulsores para completar una maniobra acrobática. El vehículo recorrió una estructura curva, quedó momentáneamente boca abajo, salió impulsado al aire y efectuó un giro antes de volver al suelo de forma totalmente controlada. La prueba pretendía mostrar las posibilidades del sistema que Tesla ha desarrollado junto a los ingenieros de SpaceX.
En lugar de emplear combustible como el utilizado habitualmente en los cohetes, el mecanismo recurre a aire comprimido almacenado a una presión muy elevada. Su liberación genera el empuje necesario para impulsar el automóvil y permitir movimientos que no forman parte de la conducción convencional.
La variante Performance dispondrá de dos asientos, podrá alcanzar aproximadamente los 100 km/h desde parado en menos de 1,6 segundos e incorporará un sistema de aspiración bajo la carrocería destinado a incrementar el agarre al asfalto. Esta variante ya se puede reservar a través de la página oficial de Tesla mediante un primer pago de 5.000 euros, íntegramente reembolsable. Diez días después deberá abonarse una segunda cantidad de 45.000 euros.
El modelo Thrust también contará con dos plazas, pero añadirá propulsores traseros para reducir el tiempo de aceleración hasta menos de 0,9 segundos. Su reserva requiere igualmente un primer desembolso de 5.000 euros, seguido de un segundo pago de 245.000 euros a los diez días. Según informa EFE, la compañía aseguró que esta versión podrá superar los 370 kilómetros por hora y ofrecer una autonomía mayor a 480 kilómetros.
Por último, la variante Rocket será la más exclusiva de la gama. Tendrá una sola plaza y contará con un "sistema de vuelo completo" según presenta la empresa en su página web. Para esta versión la aceleración de 0 a casi 100 km/h se producirá en menos de 0,59 segundos. Este coche "listo para volar" solo se puede reservar en su página oficial mediante invitación.
Elon Musk ha explicado que este deportivo será el único que cuente con conducción manual dentro de la estrategia de Tesla, ya que la marca pretende orientar buena parte de su futuro hacia los vehículos autónomos y la robótica.
El Roadster de segunda generación lleva casi nueve años pendiente de llegar al mercado. Tesla dio a conocer el proyecto en 2017 y entonces contemplaba su lanzamiento en 2020, con un precio inicial previsto de alrededor de 200.000 dólares. Sin embargo, el calendario se fue modificando mientras la compañía concentraba recursos en otros vehículos y en nuevas líneas de desarrollo tecnológico.
Entre las prioridades que han ocupado a Tesla durante este periodo figuran el Model Y, el Cybertruck y sus iniciativas vinculadas a la conducción autónoma y los robots humanoides. La nueva demostración permite volver a conocer detalles del deportivo, pero la empresa mantiene 2028 como horizonte para comenzar a fabricarlo y todavía no ha publicado los precios definitivos de las tres versiones.
El empresario ha reconocido que el diseño del nuevo Roadster no esta necesariamente "optimizado para la seguridad", una cuestión que genera dudas sobre su homologación para circular por carreteras públicas, según ha informado la agencia EFE.
Tesla
Where Tesla's going, you might not need roads — but you still need to read the terms and conditions.
Tesla's thruster-powered, midair flip-kicking, flying supercar was a wow moment even by the standards of the company's famously off-the-rails product unveilings.
But Tesla fans lining up to pay as much as $250,000 to reserve the new Roadster, which can do 0-60 mph in under a second thanks to a system of cold-gas thrusters, should probably take a close look at the fine print.
Tesla
The company's T&Cs make it clear that the final price of the bleeding-edge EV — which comes in Performance, Thrust, and Rocket variants — has yet to be determined and state that there are no guarantees the Roadster will ever be delivered.
Meanwhile, it is unclear whether the two thruster-powered versions of the Roadster will actually be road-legal.
After combing through the Roadster's reservation agreement and Musk's comments at its unveiling, here's what you should know before splashing out on Tesla's most outlandish vehicle yet.
As the dust cleared on the jaw-dropping Roadster showcase, one key question remained unanswered: where exactly will you be able to drive it?
At the event, Musk said the cold air thruster-powered flying Roadster would be an actual "car that someone can own," not just a one-off concept demonstration.
But the Tesla CEO added that he was "not sure it's necessarily legal in all jurisdictions," and when an audience member asked if it would be street-legal, Musk was vague.
Tesla
"Depends on your street. But it'll be a viable car," the billionaire said.
The flying Rocket variant shown in the demo is invite-only. It's listed on Tesla's website with the caveat that it is "not approved for public road use."
The gravity-defying stunts, flips, and barrel rolls shown off at Thursday's unveiling were performed without a driver in the car for safety reasons, and Musk described the vehicle as "not necessarily a safety-optimized car."
One thing that has been clarified is whether the Roadster's airborne capabilities make it an aircraft: "The Tesla vehicle does not meet the FAA's definition of an aircraft," a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson told Business Insider.
By contrast, Tesla describes the Performance variant — which costs $50,000 to reserve — as "road ready" with its fan-suction system providing "next-level performance on and off the track." That suggests the goal is for the base version of the Roadster, at least, to be road-legal.
The limited-edition Thrust variant, meanwhile, is described as "race ready," implying that this version might be exclusively for driving on race tracks. That would not be unusual for a high-end hypercar, with Ferrari, Pagani, and Bugatti all selling track-only supercars that don't adhere to normal vehicle regulations.
Shelling out up to $250,000 for a Roadster reservation by no means guarantees that you will get one at that price.
According to the terms and conditions of Tesla's Roadster reservation agreement, the fees for the Performance and Thrust variants are only an estimate, as the company is still "working on what options, features and hardware the vehicle will have."
Tesla
The final purchase price will be confirmed closer to the start of production, the document said, with the (fully refundable) reservation payment going toward the actual cost of the car.
The T&Cs also advise reservation holders that the Roadster is still "under development" and Tesla "cannot guarantee when your vehicle will actually be delivered or if it will be delivered."
This will likely bring back bad memories for Tesla fans who paid $50,000 to reserve the next-generation Roadster when it was first unveiled in 2017.
That version of the Roadster, a more conventional supercar that could still hit 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, languished in development for years and ultimately never entered production.
The delay caused some long-suffering reservation holders like Musk's arch-rival, Sam Altman, and tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, to cancel their orders in frustration after waiting nearly a decade for a car that never arrived.
Tesla fans will be hoping that history doesn't repeat itself.
Editor's note: October 16, 2026 — This story was updated to include a comment from the FAA.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
It's been a long time coming.
Almost eight years ago, in January 2019, Elon Musk shared plans on Twitter for Tesla's Roadster to lift off using cold-gas thrusters and ultra-high-pressure air. On Thursday, the much-anticipated Roadster did exactly that.
Musk's 2019 assertion came in response to a user sharing a GIF of the DeLorean from "Back to the Future" hovering in midair.
"The new Roadster will actually do something like this," he wrote. Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee responded: "The thing is I feel like you’re not joking."
"I'm not," Musk said.
I’m not. Will use SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultra high pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 9, 2019
He then described a SpaceX-made cold-gas thruster system that uses high-pressure air stored in a composite pressure vessel.
At a SpaceX test site in Texas on Thursday, almost 8 years later, a Roadster climbed a curved ramp, dropped, rolled through the air and landed on its wheels. It used the same basic technology: cold-gas thrusters fed by high-pressure air stored in composite pressure vessels.
The 2019 exchange was not Musk’s first mention of thrusters. In June 2018, he said the Roadster would include roughly 10 of them and suggested they might allow the car to fly.
Using the config you describe, plus an electric pump to replenish air in COPV, when car power draw drops below max pack power output, makes sense. But we are going to go a lot further.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2018
When another user proposed compressed-air cold-gas thrusters, Musk said that configuration made sense and described a pump to replenish the air.
Musk's account of the technology has proved more consistent than his production timetable. Tesla unveiled plans for the second-generation Roadster in 2017 and originally targeted production for 2020. After repeated delays, Musk said in the reveal that production will begin in 2028.
The Roadster is not Tesla’s only vehicle to miss an ambitious release target. When Musk unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, he said Tesla expected production to begin in late 2021. The first customer deliveries took place two years later, in November 2023.
While Musk has missed plenty of deadlines, many of his more improbable technology plans have made it beyond the drawing board. In December 2020, he said SpaceX would try to catch a returning Super Heavy booster with its launch tower.
We’re going to try to catch the Super Heavy Booster with the launch tower arm, using the grid fins to take the load
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 30, 2020
Nearly four years later, the tower’s mechanical "chopsticks" caught one for the first time.
The tower has caught the rocket!!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2024
pic.twitter.com/CPXsHJBdUh
Musk has a habit of promising the improbable well before it is ready, but eventually, the improbable part arrives.
Annunciata nel 2017, promessa ai clienti per il 2020 e ora attesa non prima del 2028. La seconda generazione della Tesla Roadster ha accumulato quasi un decennio di rinvii, ma nel frattempo ha imparato a volare. O almeno a sollevarsi da terra, compiere evoluzioni in aria e atterrare sulle quattro ruote. Elon Musk ha scelto il centro prove di SpaceX a McGregor, in Texas, per presentare la nuova sportiva elettrica. Una dimostrazione spettacolare, che lascia però aperti molti interrogativi sulla futura produzione di serie.
La scena più sorprendente si è svolta su una gigantesca rampa curva. Grazie a un sistema di ventole che genera una forte depressione sotto la carrozzeria, la Roadster ha risalito la struttura fino a fermarsi capovolta, per poi staccarsi dalla superficie, ruotare in aria e tornare a terra. In un’altra prova ha sorvolato una fila di veicoli Tesla. A rendere possibili queste manovre sono i micropropulsori a gas freddo sviluppati con SpaceX, capaci di controllare l’assetto della vettura attraverso getti regolabili. Il sistema di aspirazione, secondo il costruttore, può generare una forza equivalente a due volte quella di gravità.
Durante la presentazione, Tesla ha mostrato un test nel quale il prototipo accelera da 0 a 96 km/h in appena 0,81 secondi, grazie anche alla spinta dei propulsori posteriori. Una prestazione dichiarata dal costruttore, ancora priva di verifiche indipendenti, che Musk sostiene possa essere ulteriormente migliorata sulla versione definitiva L’autonomia annunciata supera i 480 chilometri, mentre la velocità massima dovrebbe oltrepassare i 370 km/h. Mancano tuttavia informazioni essenziali: Tesla non ha comunicato la capacità della batteria, il numero dei motori elettrici e il peso della vettura.
La gamma dovrebbe articolarsi in tre versioni, con configurazioni progressivamente più sofisticate fino alla Rocket, dotata del sistema completo di propulsione per le manovre aeree. Anche sul fronte commerciale restano diverse incognite, a cominciare dai prezzi definitivi e dalle procedure di omologazione. Perché un conto è far volare un prototipo in un ambiente controllato, un altro è trasformarlo in un’automobile utilizzabile e commercializzabile.
La Roadster arriva inoltre in una fase particolare per Tesla, sempre più concentrata sulla guida autonoma e sulla robotica. Una sportiva estrema, pensata per esaltare il piacere della guida, sembra muoversi in direzione opposta. Ma il suo ruolo potrebbe essere soprattutto quello di rilanciare l’immagine tecnologica del marchio, più che contribuire significativamente ai volumi di vendita.
Resta il peso di nove anni di attesa. E soprattutto una domanda: quanta parte dello spettacolo visto in Texas arriverà davvero nelle mani dei clienti? La risposta, salvo ulteriori rinvii, è attesa nel 2028.
L'articolo Tesla Roadster, l’auto volante di Elon Musk tra tecnologia e promesse – FOTO e VIDEO proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Tesla
Tesla’s long-delayed Roadster finally made an entrance — by flying off a ramp.
At a livestreamed event Thursday night, the sports car climbed a curved ramp until it was upside down, launched into the air, flipped, and landed on its wheels, apparently aided by thrusters beneath the vehicle.
“Well, it worked,” Elon Musk said during the livestream.
Musk said Tesla and SpaceX engineers collaborated on the car, which uses high-pressure air and thrusters to lift itself off the ground. Tesla also showed a recorded demonstration in which the Roadster reached 60 mph in 0.81 seconds.
While the legality of such a device on public roads remains in question, the tech world is reacting to Musk's new creation with awe.
Here is what the leading voices in business and tech are saying about the new Roadster.
Bloomberg/Getty Images
Angel investor Jason Calacanis said in an X post that the videos of the flying car looked like "science fiction," and they're real, although they don't seem to be.
He seemed enthused by the demonstration, asking that while the car was only airborne for a couple of seconds, "what if it could keep you in the air for five minutes? Or ten? Or 30?"
Brian Ach/Getty Images for LocationWorld 2016
Gene Munster, the managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management and a longtime tech analyst, wrote his two takeaways from the Roadster event on X.
First, that "it was an engineering flex with no commercial value beyond embarrassing traditional car makers."
And the second was that it signaled Musk's ambition to merge his two publicly traded companies, SpaceX and Tesla.
credit should read GABRIELLE LURIE/AFP via Getty Images
John Carmack, the former CTO of Meta's virtual reality division, politely rejected the flying car.
"That demo involved a non trivial chance of embarrassing failure!" he wrote on X.
He added, "I'm only going for the baseline model. At this point in my life, rocket bunny hops are out of my comfort zone."
Chance Yeh/Getty Images for HubSpot
Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD, appeared incredulous at Tesla's claims about the new Roadster.
"They really just got on stage and said this newly designed 4000+ pound car can do flips and go half the speed of sound (380+mph) and will ship in 2028," he wrote on X. "This is a prank, right?"
Bloomberg/Getty Images
Meta's chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, had one burning question after watching Tesla's Roadster demonstration.
"wait who the hell was driving the tesla," Wang wrote on X, sharing footage of the car speeding down a dark track.
Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images
Dan Ives, an analyst at Yorkville Ives and a longtime Tesla bull, said the Roadster reveal was "a statement about where the Tesla and SpaceX engineering stacks are headed together."
He wrote that the car's SpaceX-developed hardware was "a small example of the synergies between Tesla and SpaceX."
Still, he said, "The Roadster will not move the volume or revenue needle," but would "restore the brand halo at the top of the market."
Bloomberg/Getty Images
David Marcus, the former PayPal president and Meta executive, credited Musk with bringing a sense of awe back to technology.
"The thing I’m most grateful to Elon for is bringing back an age of wonder and excitement to humanity," Marcus wrote on X, sharing Tesla's Roadster demonstration.
"That was jaw-dropping awesome! Screams and mouths wide open in the audience. Nuts."
Bloomberg/Getty Images
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, appeared to momentarily set aside his long-running beef with Musk to congratulate the Tesla boss.
"Wow the new roadster looks quite amazing, good job @elonmusk," Altman wrote in a Friday X post.
Altman had reserved an earlier version of the Roadster but said in October 2025 that he had canceled it after waiting 7.5 years, prompting a public exchange of barbs with Musk.
Musk was a cofounder and early financial backer of OpenAI, but he left the company's board in 2018 and has become critical of Altman's leadership.
Tesla
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Tesla's new flying car.
Elon Musk's Tesla revealed its next-generation Roadster vehicle during a livestreamed event on Thursday. In a futuristic display of its capabilities, the car drove up a curved ramp until it was upside down, became airborne, engaged its thrusters at the bottom, and did a midair flip before landing.
In another demonstration, it sped toward a line of cars, took off, did a kickflip over the cars, and landed on the other side.
The demo was, by all measures, jaw-dropping. But the internet took all of minutes to turn the flying, kickflipping car into a meme.
The overhead signs on the freeway give ample allowance for tall vehicles. Not so much for flying cars.
POV: your Tesla’s pressurized line breaks pic.twitter.com/pw8QF7K9TB
— Cole | Dental SEO (@AllGasSeo) October 16, 2026
Some internet users had the traffic police in their prayers.
Sir let me see your drivers license and registratiooooohhh my god pic.twitter.com/k0OxLvXFPU
— Probly (@ProblyHQ) October 16, 2026
We're not yet sure if roadster kickflips will be allowed on public roads. One X user made an early prototype of a new road sign:
New road signs in the making… 🏎️🔄 pic.twitter.com/kVLcIZoYYH
— Thexercisedude (@thexercisedude) October 16, 2026
Meanwhile, others were already thinking of how to get ahead of morning traffic.
When the Karen in the left lane is going 10 under pic.twitter.com/9Bn5E4rrvw
— KINGPIN (@HeyyBigGuy) October 16, 2026
If you've ever spilled a drink because of a sudden speed bump, imagine how much worse an unexpected flight might be.
The hell pic.twitter.com/9ttyp8wCum
— Jean Cabone (@jeancabone) October 16, 2026
My $10 coffee after I skipped the intersection. pic.twitter.com/CXgQTrAQVH
— MrSwitzTV (@MrSwitz71) October 16, 2026
One practical-minded X user was more concerned about how Roadsters, in all their soaring glory, could be insured.
Cars insurers right now pic.twitter.com/geV5OV1bn6
— Karani (@Weyne_west) October 16, 2026
Finally, there had never been a better time to quote "Back to the future."
— Safe Spaces | Commentary+ (@real_safespaces) October 16, 2026
Mines in supply chains of western carmakers linked to widespread deforestation of primary rainforest in nickel-rich lands inhabited by Tolaki people in Indonesia
Volkswagen, Ford and Tesla are among the electric carmakers whose batteries may contain nickel mined in indigenous woodlands plagued by deforestation, an analysis has found, highlighting the struggle to make vehicles that are free from environmental destruction.
Corporate disclosures and trade flows from the last two years show mines in the battery supply chains of automotive giants are linked to the loss of trees in Sulawesi, a wildlife hotspot in Indonesia that houses the world’s largest nickel deposits. The metal is widely used in cathodes in car batteries because it boosts energy density and increases range.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Didi Hardiana, NGO Puspaham
© Photograph: Didi Hardiana, NGO Puspaham
© Photograph: Didi Hardiana, NGO Puspaham
Tesla
Tesla's Roadster is back. Now, it kinda flies, and I'm not just being hyperbolic about its speed.
(Although, I guess, that would be a fair read, too.)
On Thursday, CEO Elon Musk unveiled the second-generation Roadster. It's capable of doing "crazy gymnastics," Musk said, like hopping off the ground and spinning in the air. The prototype also sprints from standing to 60 mph in 0.8 seconds, Tesla claims — and the automaker said the production model will be even quicker.
Will the two-door electric sports car be street legal? Who knows.
Instead, the car is accomplishing something more tangible — and more obviously Musk-like: make Tesla look like the kind of company that can build things other companies cannot. That's a useful message for Wall Street and for the engineers Tesla wants to hire.
Tesla is already valued far more like a tech company than a traditional automaker.
For years, investors have bet heavily on its ambitions in autonomy, artificial intelligence, robotics, and robotaxis. A flying (or, at least, hopping) Roadster does not prove those businesses will work, but it makes Tesla's technological ambitions more legible.
Musk also has long treated product spectacles as recruiting events, too.
At a 2019 Neuralink presentation, where he announced that the company had successfully implanted sensors in rats' brains, he said the "main reason for doing this presentation is recruiting." Ahead of Tesla's 2021 AI Day, Musk posted on X that "convincing the best AI talent to join Tesla is the sole goal."
The Roadster reveal follows a very similar playbook. What better way to excite more techies than a flying car?
Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, also agrees that Thursday's Roadster reveal was an exciting technical feat for up-and-coming tech talent:
Two takeaways from tonight’s Roadster event. 1. It was an engineering flex with no commercial value beyond embarrassing traditional car makers. 2. Elon can’t wait to bring $TSLA and $SPCX together.
— Gene Munster (@munster_gene) October 16, 2026
Who knows if Tesla will even be able to bring this car to American roads. Musk said he doesn't even know.
"I'm not sure it's necessarily legal in all jurisdictions," he said during the Thursday launch. When asked if the car was street legal, Musk responded: "Yeah, depends on your street."
Either way, this car may not need to be a volume sales winner to be a hit for Tesla. It might just need to be the tech belle of the ball.
Tesla
The Roadster has, at long last, taken off — quite literally.
Tesla unveiled its next-generation Roadster at a livestreamed event Thursday night, giving customers who have waited years their first fresh look at the EV maker's new halo car.
In a dramatic demonstration, the Roadster traveled up a huge curved ramp until it was upside down. The car then flew off the ramp, flipped, and landed safely on the ground, thanks to thrusters attached to the bottom of the vehicle.
Tesla
"Well, it worked," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said after it successfully landed.
"Flying cars are real," Lars Moravy, Tesla's VP of vehicle engineering, added.
Musk called the latest Roadster a result of a collaboration with Tesla and SpaceX engineers.
The Tesla CEO said the car uses an "advanced ultra-high pressure air tank" to lift itself.
"The car has obviously altitude control thrusters and main thrusters in the rear, so it can basically fly like a rocket, and it could do rolls," he said.
In a separate recorded demonstration shown on screen, Tesla also showed the Roadster hitting 60 mph in under one second, marking .81 seconds.
Tesla shared more stats about the Roadster on X: a two-seater with about 300 miles of range and a top speed over 230 mph. Some of the configurations also appear to depend on whether the Roadster is equipped with "rocket" thrusters. For example, if the car is "air ready" and has the rocket, the Roadster seats only one.
Tesla
There are also small details about the Roadster that notably diverge from Tesla's signature design choices.
The Roadster's door latches, for example, appear to be mechanical. Typical Tesla cars are known for their electronic door latches, which China is clamping down on due to safety risks.
The halo vehicle also appears to lack side-view mirrors, which raises the question of how the Roadster will be street-legal under federal standards.
Tesla's website lists three configurations of the car for purchase: performance, thrust, and rocket. The performance trim requires an immediate $5,000 deposit, with an additional $45,000 due in 10 days. The thrust version requires a $250,000 deposit. The rocket trim appears to be available only through "invite only."
Musk said the Roadster will be the only Tesla vehicle meant to be driven manually and that it's not "necessarily a safety-optimized car."
An observant audience member at the event also asked a glaring question: Is it street legal?
"Depends on your street," Musk said. "It'll be a viable car."
The revived nameplate has been a long time coming.
The original Roadster was Tesla's first production vehicle, launching in California in 2008. It used a chassis derived from British sports-car maker Lotus' Elise, but replaced its gasoline engine with an all-electric powertrain. That model ended production in 2012.
Musk surprised audiences in November 2017 at an event for Tesla's Semi truck by unveiling a second-generation Roadster. At the time, Tesla said the two-door sports car would have a 1.9-second zero-to-60-mph time, a top speed above 250 mph, more than 600 miles of range, and a gargantuan 200-kilowatt-hour battery pack.
Tesla
That month, customers could put down a $50,000 deposit to reserve a Roadster, or pay $250,000 upfront for a Founders Series model.
Musk also floated a SpaceX package for the supercar with cold-gas thrusters that he said might "allow a Tesla to fly."
With the wait time creeping toward a decade, Musk apologized to "long-suffering" deposit holders in an earnings call, adding that Tesla was focusing heavily on its robotics and autonomy programs.
"Roadster is not just icing on the cake; it's the cherry on the icing on the cake," he said at the time. "We are working on it, but it has to come behind the things that have a more serious impact on the world."
Tesla began ramping up the Roadster's design cycle in the summer of 2025, Business Insider previously reported.
Musk had been hyping Thursday's livestreamed event on X. He claimed that event would be "a candidate for greatest product demo of all time" and that "the whole world will watch this."
Tens of thousands of autoworkers in Germany protested last week against the car giant’s drastic cuts – spanning job losses and plant closures – even as Volkswagen benefited from some €1.48bn in state subsidies to entice people to buy their brand of electric cars.
The figure, released to EUobserver via a parliamentary demand tabled by German Green MP Julian Joswig, revealed that the German state has doled out €10.1bn in environmental bonuses between 2020 to 2026 to lure people into purchasing electric cars.
As an individual named brand, Volkswagen received the most, followed by Tesla with €889m ahead of other brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Renault, Hyundai, Opel, SEAT and Kia.
“When more than €10bn in public funding is involved, it must be possible to trace where the money goes and what economic impact it generates,” said Joswig, in a statement.
German domestic interest in electric cars has shown a steady increase over the years. Last month, over 30-percent of all new cars registered in Germany were electric. That is a new record, according to Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority.
Even so, the German car industry, including Volkswagen, are shedding workers amid plans to cut plants after being caught off guard by US tariffs and China, whose own industry is now pushing into the European market.
On Monday (21 September), Volkswagen was removed from the Euro Stoxx 50 index given its shrinking market valuation.
Volkswagen, which is a state-owned company, recently announced plans to repurpose its Osnabrück factory in north-west Germany in order to manufacture weapons for Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
The irony is not lost given that Volkswagen was founded by Hitler largely on the back of Jewish slave labour, which is now set to produce arms for an Israel accused of having itself committed a genocide.
“I haven’t seen that being discussed here. Certainly not in the media. People do discuss it, but it’s not anywhere out in the public debate,” said Holger Görg, a professor of International Economics at the University of Kiel.
The car company also announced plans to close its plants in Emden, Hanover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm amid discussions of massive layoffs, potentially affecting some 100,000 people as well as job losses among numerous suppliers.
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