Tesla's new flying Roadster did exactly what Elon Musk said it would in a post 8 years ago

Tesla's new flying Roadster did exactly what Elon Musk said it would in a post 8 years ago By Georgia Hennessy You're currently following this author! Click to unsubscribe from email alerts. Elon Musk may have been years late on his Roadster deadline, but the tech Tesla showed off was just as described eight years ago.

Win McNamee/Getty Images It's been a long time coming. Almost eight years ago, in January 2019, Elon Musk shared plans on Twitter for Tesla's Roadster to lift off using cold-gas thrusters and ultra-high-pressure air. On Thursday, the much-anticipated Roadster did exactly that.

Musk's 2019 assertion came in response to a user sharing a GIF of the DeLorean from "Back to the Future" hovering in midair. "The new Roadster will actually do something like this," he wrote. Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee responded: "The thing is I feel like you’re not joking." "I'm not," Musk said.

I’m not. Will use SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultra high pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 9, 2019 He then described a SpaceX-made cold-gas thruster system that uses high-pressure air stored in a composite pressure vessel. At a SpaceX test site in Texas on Thursday, almost 8 years later, a Roadster climbed a curved ramp, dropped, rolled through the air and landed on its wheels.

It used the same basic technology: cold-gas thrusters fed by high-pressure air stored in composite pressure vessels. The 2019 exchange was not Musk’s first mention of thrusters. In June 2018, he said the Roadster would include roughly 10 of them and suggested they might allow the car to fly.

Using the config you describe, plus an electric pump to replenish air in COPV, when car power draw drops below max pack power output, makes sense. But we are going to go a lot further. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2018 When another user proposed compressed-air cold-gas thrusters, Musk said that configuration made sense and described a pump to replenish the air. Musk's account of the technology has proved more consistent than his production timetable.

Tesla unveiled plans for the second-generation Roadster in 2017 and originally targeted production for 2020. After repeated delays, Musk said in the reveal that production will begin in 2028. The Roadster is not Tesla’s only vehicle to miss an ambitious release target.

When Musk unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, he said Tesla expected production to begin in late 2021. The first customer deliveries took place two years later, in November 2023. While Musk has missed plenty of deadlines, many of his more improbable technology plans have made it beyond the drawing board.

In December 2020, he said SpaceX would try to catch a returning Super Heavy booster with its launch tower. We’re going to try to catch the Super Heavy Booster with the launch tower arm, using the grid fins to take the load — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 30, 2020 Nearly four years later, the tower’s mechanical "chopsticks" caught one for the first time. Musk has a habit of promising the improbable well before it is ready, but eventually, the improbable part arrives.

Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Georgia Hennessy You're currently following this author! Click to unsubscribe from email alerts. Georgia is a Business News Fellow at Business Insider's London office.

Before joining Business Insider, she worked at Japan's largest newspaper, The Yomiuri Shimbun, and interned at the Financial Times. She is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with a degree in Philosophy from the University of Birmingham. Elon Musk Electric Cars Electric Vehicles More Tesla

Source: Business Insider