I maintain that the entire event was to create a trail of evidence that justifies merging Tesla and SpaceX. No car will ever ship.

You can hear it in the voices of the creators, when they're giving an overview of the car to MotorWeek and other car media outlets. 99% focused on the rocket and battery tech/innovation, almost zero about the actual driving characteristics of the car, or that it -is- a car. Seems more like a rolling marketing mule.

Elon:’This is a car people will be able to own and drive’.

Someone add that to the list of bullshit he said.

As much as I dislike Tesla, a lot of this feels like pretty standard legalize that would be in most reservation or pre-order documents to protect the company. Can anyone speak to if this is truly unique for in this case?

one one hand, i think showmanship can be used to generate interest for something that is far off and thus allow humans to pursue long term goals and i think elon has used this tactic in the past for the right reasons but these days it seems like he just uses this tactic to deceive people - almost like trump.

No insurance will touch that car with a 10-foot pole.

Wouldn’t be a first

Conversely, I can guarantee they won't get the functionality demoed.

Even the Cybertruck reservations took years to materialize, at a much higher price.

100k people will be driving Tesla Roadsters on Mars in 3 years

There's probably going to be a single trick car someone can demo remotely (no passengers) somewhere like an hour away from LA, it will very often be down for maintenance, and everyone will only be able to buy the street legal version of the car which won't be available for another 3 years

A grifter scamming money from fools, I almost want him to do more of this.

... because it was always a PR stunt.

The dialog of the event spelled it out.

"We are here at SpaceX's uh rocket test and development center in McGregor, Texas. It's 4,000 acres. Thank you for having us. Thank you for hosting us, SpaceX."

Establishes SpaceX as a giant.

"we're 20 years from when Elon first introduced the Roadster to the world. And it was really a proof of concept that proved EVs were viable product, fun to drive, could go the distance."

Establishes Elon/Tesla as an innovator. Spells out clearly the context "proof of concept." Associates "demonstrations" with "proof." Introduces the concepts of "fun", "viable", and "longevity" aka "distance."

"They were real cars. And look at how far we've come in those 20 years."

Compares introduction of a car, with current demonstration, and establishes the idea that todays "flying car" is going to be just as successful, given time.

"But you know, the last time we had Roadster and SpaceX together, we put Elons's into orbit."

Establishes "the sky as the limit" as to what these two companies can do together. The heart of the entire sales pitch.

"And you can see there, and you know, Starman is still out there somewhere. Amazing feat."

Defines "creating more space junk for publicity stunts" as an "amazing feat."

"you're going to see the results of what happens when you have a collaboration with the world's best car company and the world's best rocket company."

Repetition of the sales pitch to cement it.

"The future is autonomous, Elon, right? Yes. But this is not an autonomous car. It is the last. Well, it it is technically autonomous for this demo to make sure we don't kill anyone. Correct. So, just in case. Uh, but uh this will actually be long-term the only uh manually driven car that Tesla makes. You're going to have some fun sometimes. Yeah. And so, if you're going to have only one manually driven car, let's uh let's take it to the limits and way past the limits."

Confusion. Establishes autonomous with inevitibility. Claims demo car is not automous, then claims it is autonomous, because its dangerous to drive it manually. Plants the idea that its the only car you're gonna need, you can drive it manually, and its the ultimate experience.

Then, as everyone is confused, they start the countdown, and the magic show commences.

Either you see the scripted psyop aka sales pitch or you don't.

We all watched the same demo.

Some of us saw an amazing future.

The rest of us saw a circus selling timeshare condos.

Tesla and SpaceX are "engineering companies." Engineering is at the heart of what they do.

Wouldn't you have more confidence, if they had engineered something useful for a demonstration as an investor, instead of the song and dance ?

Companies are supposed to produce useful products to generate profits, which is why investors invest, right ?

To me it looks like they are out of actual real useful ideas. If they had a new useful idea why didn't we see it ?

I think this might have lowered institutional investor confidence because it looks like a vegas show and smells like a tourist pump and dump intended to capture the "retail publics" money.

You can do better Elon. I know you can.

ps. I am a Starlink subscriber, and I love the service. Please don't cancel me.

Musk treating delusional fans like an ATM as always, lovely.

There's 1000 people that preordered their Roadster in 2017 for 250k $....

And they are rumoring now 2028 production, which in Tesla style will be deep in 2030s. If it ever happens.

It has vapor thrusters to glide above the ignorant fools who didn't buy one.

Great way to get $250k interest free loans from suckers with too much hopium and not enough class to get the Mission S.

I love that the FSD feature still hasn't been delivered while they're demonstrating they're next idiotic product idea / stunt...no one mentions it.

Wasn't it purpose built for the Hot Wheels demo?

Insane acceleration to get up the ramp and enough fuel to land safely.

Unless you have a giant ramp or a penchant to drive off cliffs who is lining up for this?