Where is my flying car? The enduring question sort of, kind of, might have an answer: In McGregor, Texas.

On Thursday, Tesla showed off a version of its new Roadster 2 sports car in a demonstration at SpaceX’s rocket development testing facility. And in its own way, with an awkward jerking maneuver, the Roadster flew a few dozen feet. The vehicle, which doesn’t yet have a price but is likely to be very expensive, is slated to go into production in 2028. The vehicle didn’t have a human occupant during the demo “to make sure we don’t kill anyone,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the event.

Tesla’s Roadster “sort of, kind of, might” be an actual flying car because aviation experts say legally catching air in the vehicle will likely involve plenty of government permissions and red tape.

“The [Federal Aviation Administration] has jurisdiction over any machine that leaves the surface of the earth,” says Scott Miller, an airline pilot and a lecturer in the Aviation and Technology program at San José State University. The vehicle “is going to introduce a whole set of regulatory issues.”

At the event Thursday, Musk acknowledged as much. “I’m not sure it’s necessarily legal in all jurisdictions," he said. “This is not necessarily a safety-optimized car.”

Any flying vehicle that weighs more than 250 or so pounds would need to go through an FAA approval process and require clearance to operate in the national airspace, says Michael McCormick, a former FAA official who now heads the Air Traffic Management program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

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