Musk's new car drove upside down, then flew. Experts aren't convinced

Elon Musk has been promising a flying car for years.

This month he finally showed one off, and it did things no car should be able to do.

On Oct. 15, at a SpaceX test site in Texas, Tesla unveiled its long-delayed new Roadster. Then it sent the car up a ramp, upside down.

There was nobody inside. Musk said that was "to make sure we don't kill anyone."

Using suction underneath, the Roadster climbed a steep curved ramp and clung to it upside down, CNN reported.

Then it spun off the ramp, flipped in mid-air, and used bursts of air to land on its wheels in a cloud of white smoke. Later it jumped clean over a line of parked Teslas.

The secret is ten nozzles fed by ultra high-pressure air tanks, which push the car in the air and on the ground. Musk claims they also take it from 0 to 60 mph in under a second.

You can watch the stunt on Musk's post on X.

Even Musk wasn't certain it would work on the night.

"Success is not guaranteed," he told the crowd. "I mean that. It'll probably work, but if it doesn't work, we're at a safe distance."

He also explained why he wanted a crowd there: "we need an audience to prove that it's not AI or SI".

So, can it fly?

Not the way most people picture it, the experts say.

Roger Connor, who curates vertical flight at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, told CNN that a car-plane hybrid would likely be "a poor performing aircraft and a poor performing vehicle".

As for the demo? "We are literally talking about hopping," he said.

Jim Dukhovny, boss of the flying car start-up Alef, was kinder. He called the flight "100% feasible", but said the hard part is turning a vertical jump into real forward flight.

When can you get one?

Not soon. Musk says production starts in 2028, and he has missed Tesla deadlines by years before.

And whether anyone could legally hover over traffic in one is an open question, Interesting Engineering noted.

For now, the flying car is a spectacular hop.