Car companies have spent the last 140 years figuring out how to perfect ground travel. Tesla decided that winning that war was unimaginative at best. And as we've all seen by now, the carmaker instead took its next-gen Roadster to the sky last month to demonstrate what it might look like to own a flying car one day.
But what would it actually be like to drive (fly?) the thing? This week, Tesla released a video showing a first-person camera view of the Roadster executing its rad kick-flip maneuver and other stunts. It does not look pleasant to experience firsthand.
If you watched the Roadster unveiling last month, this all probably looks familiar. It's the same stunts we saw that day, including the upside-down dive off of the half-pipe and the jump-spin over the Tesla Semi. But seeing it from the car's perspective adds a whole new layer to it, and shows this dizzying experience a person would have from the cockpit.
Watching the cold gas thrusters at work up close during the kickflip gives you a sense of how much goes into ensuring that the car stays upright. The car adjusts the volume of nitrogen that it releases in order to prevent car from over-rotating and transferring from a barrel roll to an out-of-control corkscrew. Just one simple nudge and it lands back on all four wheels.
Then there's the nosedive off of the half-pipe. A bit more correcting to keep the roll and yaw in check—but the Roadster does it without a hiccup.
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