Elon Musk wants the new Tesla sports car to make 007 proud.
The billionaire electric car tycoon said he is working to trick the future Tesla Roadster with rocket technology so that it can hover above the ground.
“I’m trying to figure out how to make this thing hang without, you know, killing people,” said Musk in an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast released on Thursday.
“I thought that maybe we could hover, but not too high, so maybe it could hover like a meter above the ground or something,” he added. “If you fall, you blow up the suspension, but you’re not going to die.”
Tesla has been working on an updated version of the Roadster – the company’s first mass-market electric car – for several years.
The Silicon Valley company hopes to finish engineering the model this year and start shipping it in 2022, according to Musk.
The Roadster will be able to move through the air while floating above the ground if Musk’s experiments hover over the ground are successful, he said. He said Tesla will offer an “optional SpaceX package”, apparently named after Musk’s rocket company, which will equip the car with a highly pressurized fuel ship and “a lot of propellers”.
If the hover doesn’t work, the Roadster may still have rear thrusters that would make it “move like a bat out of hell” on the road, said Musk.
“At the very least, I’m confident that we could make a propeller where the plate turns down, you know, James Bond style, and then the rocket propeller behind it, and that gives you three tons of momentum,” he said.
Tesla unveiled the new Roadster in 2017. The following year, SpaceX launched Musk’s personal Roadster in space. The car passed Mars for the first time last fall.
Tesla shares fell 0.6 percent in the premarket to $ 807.09 at 7am on Friday.