Elon Musk promised Tesla Roadster owners a car that performs its own stunts. In a reply on X on October 17, two days after the hypercar's unveiling at SpaceX's rocket development and testing facility in McGregor, Texas, Musk said the Roadster "will be sentient" enough to repeat the unveiling's tricks on command.
He also teased a dedicated track at Tesla's Texas headquarters where owners can test those tricks themselves.
Neither claim came with a date, and Tesla has not explained how either feature would work.
Musk's post laid out the pitch directly: "You will be able to ask the Roadster to perform any of the tricks shown autonomously, as it will be sentient. Also, we will have a wild looping track (crazier even than Hot Wheels) at our Texas HQ where you can test out your Roadster."
The tricks in question were shown at the October 15 unveiling, where an unmanned Roadster climbed a steep ramp using suction, drove upside down, flipped through the air and used thrusters to land upright. Tesla says the car used 10 nozzles and ultra-high-pressure air tanks to pull it off.
Tesla has described the hardware behind the stunts as steer by wire paired with cold gas thrusters, the same system SpaceX uses for spacecraft attitude control. That thruster setup can generate four to five times more force than the tires alone, Tesla says, which is what let the demo car fly over a line of parked vehicles and a semi-truck.
None of that explains how "sentient" translates into a button an owner actually presses.
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