Elon Musk reveals plans to make Tesla Roadster hover on Joe Rogan Podcast

Georgina Smith
Elon Musk on the Joe Rogan Podcast

Elon Musk elaborated on plans to add “rocket technology” to the upcoming second-generation Tesla Roadster in order to make it hover, though safety concerns will have an effect on its capabilities.

Joe Rogan is undoubtedly one of the biggest podcasters on the internet, standing at just over 10 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. Despite his move over to Spotify he still maintains a solid listener base, and as ever, continues to have the most high-profile guests flock to his Texas studio to be on the JRE podcast.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been on the podcast twice before, and each time he has proven to be a hugely popular guest among viewers. The first episode they did together, episode 1169, has over 40 million views on YouTube.

Joe Rogan and ELon Musk on the JRE podcast
Elon Musk appeared on the JRE podcast in 2018, and later in 2020.

This time around, Joe wanted to get some info on the upcoming Tesla Roadster, the second generation to the all-electric sports car produced from 2008.

Musk has previously spoken about the possibility of adding rocket thrusters to the new Roadster model back in 2018, teasing that, “maybe they will even allow a Tesla to fly,” and he doubled down on these plans in episode 1609 of the JRE podcast.

After Joe asked when the Roadster might be available, Elon revealed that “we’re finishing the insuring of it this year, and so hopefully start shipping them next year,” before adding, “and we’re gonna throw some rocket technology in that car.”

Topic starts at 58:35

Then came the all-important question: “will it hover?” It’s clear that the CEO is keeping hold of his plans from 2018, as he replied: “I want it to hover. And I’m trying to figure out how to make this thing hover without, you know, killing people.”

He went on to add: “I thought maybe we could make it hover but like, not too high. So maybe it can hover like a meter above the ground or something like that,” in order to stop it from being lethal.

Musk revealed that the car would be able to travel while it’s hovering, and although you’d be able to travel “pretty fast,” you’re still going to be “time-limited.”

The news that Tesla is still trying to go ahead with plans for an actual hover-car will no doubt be exciting for many, and people will be keen to see whether it really comes to fruition next year.

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About The Author

Georgina was formerly an entertainment writer for Dexerto. She covered all aspects of influencer culture on TikTok and more, including creators such as Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae. She also wrote about hit reality shows such as Love Island and Below Deck.