Elon Musk is a touch eccentric. On top of wanting to shoot a movie in outer space with Tom Cruise, the entrepreneur has been busy of late nudging his way into the GameStop-Reddit saga and getting really into cryptocurrency. But now he has a new idea: hover cars!
Musk broke his latest harebrained scheme on the latest episode of The Joe Rogan Podcast (of course), in which he discussed the next generation of the Tesla Roadster, his company’s line of electric sports cars they debuted 13 years ago. He’s been developing its follow-up for years, initially promising it would simply be faster. But what if it could also sort of fly a bit?
“I want it to hover, and I was trying to figure out how to make this thing hover without, you know, killing people,” Musk told Rogan. “Maybe it can hover like a meter above the ground, or something like that. If you plummet it’ll blow out the suspension but you’re not gonna die.”
Ignoring, if you can, that promises like “you’re not gonna die” aren’t exactly reassuring, it’s not clear how serious Musk was about finding a way for cars to float a few feet off the ground. Besides, the second generation Tesla Roadster is scheduled for production next year. And since hovering technology hasn’t quite been conquered — the “hoverboards” currently on the market, um, have wheels — it may simply be Musk getting a little too loose on Rogan’s show. After all, it’s happened before.
(Via The Verge)