Elon Musk wants Tesla’s new sports car to be proud of the 007.
The billionaire electric car mogul said he is working to trick the next Tesla Roadster with rocket technology so he can glide above the ground.
“I’m trying to figure out how to make this thing plan without killing people,” Musk said in an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast released Thursday.
“I thought maybe we could make it glide, but not too high, so maybe it can glide like a meter above the ground or something,” he added. “If you plunge, you blow the suspension but you won’t die.”
Tesla has been working on an updated version of the Roadster for several years, the company’s first electric car on the market.
The Silicon Valley company hopes to finish engineering the model this year and expects to start shipping it in 2022, according to Musk.
The Roadster would be able to move through the air while floating on the ground if Musk’s experiments plan successfully, he said. He claimed that Tesla will offer a “SpaceX options package”, which apparently bears the name of Musk’s rocket company, which will equip the car with a highly pressurized fuel ship and “lots of propellers”.
If the flight doesn’t work, the Roadster could still have rear thrusters that would make it “move like a bat out of hell” on the road, Musk said.
“At the very least, I’m sure we could make a propeller where the license plate falls down, you know, James Bond-style, and then the rocket behind it, and that will give you three tons of thrust,” he said.
Tesla first introduced the new Roadster in 2017. The following year, SpaceX launched Musk’s personal Roadster into space. The car first passed on Mars last fall.
Shares of Tesla fell 0.6 percent in premarket trading to $ 807.09 at 7 a.m. Friday.