Elon Musk revealed earlier on the podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience" that Tesla is developing a flying car and hopes to unveil its prototype by the end of this year.
Instead of discussing the Roadster progress, they turned to the "unforgettable" flight demonstration.
The show's host, Joe Rogan, inquired about the specific progress of Tesla's long-delayed second-generation Roadster electric sports car. However, Elon Musk did not delve into the Roadster's production timeline, instead shifting the topic to flying vehicles, mentioning an upcoming "unforgettable" product demonstration.
Equipped with "crazy technology," its appearance "looks like a car."
Elon Musk didn't provide many specific details in the interview, and his answers were relatively vague. However, he eventually quoted his friend, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel's famous saying: "We were promised flying cars, but we don't have flying cars." Elon Musk continued, "I think if Peter Thiel wanted a flying car, we should be able to buy one."
He claimed that the vehicle Tesla is developing contains "crazy technology," but also said he was unsure if it could still be considered a "car," but "it looks like a car."
When Joe Rogan pressed Elon Musk about whether the vehicle had "retractable wings" or was a "vertical takeoff and landing" (VTOL) design, he did not give a direct answer, clearly hoping to save the answer for the official announcement.
Elon Musk's "optimistic" timeline has been further expanded.
In fact, Elon Musk had been publicly discussing the idea of developing flying cars since 2014. However, given the CEO's past record of being "overly optimistic and ambitious" about product timelines, the outside world generally has reservations about this "before the end of the year" promise.
For example, the starting point of this discussion—the second-generation Roadster—has yet to enter production, and SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket's first launch was also five years later than initially predicted. Therefore, even if Tesla does unveil a flying car prototype before the end of the year, it is widely expected that the prototype is still a long way from mass production, or even legally on the road (or taking to the skies), and has a lot of room for improvement.
On the other hand, Elon Musk also suggested to Uber in 2018 that flying cars could be widely used in the United States within the next 10 years.CriticismSome believe these flying cars are environmentally unfriendly and could create more problems. However, many argue that Elon Musk's primary focus at the time was promoting the Hyperloop connecting Washington and New York, while he himself continued to invest in it.Flying car startupIn addition, Tesla has also revealed plans to launch a flying car product, which clearly indicates that Elon Musk is optimistic about the development of such products.
He once again engaged in a verbal battle with the CEO of OpenAI on social media.
The Tesla Roadster was unveiled in 2017, with deliveries originally scheduled to begin in 2020, but production has been repeatedly delayed. As a result, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently complained on social media that he has yet to get a refund for the $5 deposit he paid back in 2018.
However, Elon Musk quickly responded, emphasizing that if Sam Altman had actually chosen to request a refund, Tesla would have issued one within 24 hours, thus ironically implying that Sam Altman had not actually requested a refund.
A tale in three acts: pic.twitter.com/ClRZBgT24g
- Sam Altman (@sama) October 30, 2025
