---
title: Was the Tesla Roadster presentation created with AI? What does physics say?
date: 2026-10-17T03:52:08Z
modified: 2026-10-17T03:54:05Z
permalink: "https://www.had.si/blog/en/2026/10/17/was-the-tesla-roadster-presentation-created-with-ai/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: "The Tesla Roadster's ceiling drive, jump and mid-air turn may look impossible, but the physics suggests otherwise - even if the engineering remains a different story."
wpid: 390750
categories:
  - Reflections
tags:
  - Reflections
  - AI
  - CGI
  - Elon Musk
  - McMurtry Spéirling
  - physics
  - tesla
  - Tesla Roadster
  - thrusters
  - english
  - pll_6ad2f12d868f4
language:
  - english
post_translations:
  - pll_6ad2f12d868f4
featured_image: "https://www.had.si/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Roadster-06-Gravity-Desktop-scaled.avif"
featured_image_alt: Roadster 06 Gravity Desktop
timestamp: 2026-10-17T03:54:05Z
---

When Elon Musk unveiled the new Tesla Roadster, driving on the ceiling, launching off a ramp, turning in mid-air and landing on its wheels, comments quickly appeared claiming the whole thing had been created with artificial intelligence. That it was CGI. That it was physically impossible. Since these things interest me, I watched nine videos explaining the technology and physics behind such a manoeuvre. I’m not a physicist, and I don’t pretend to be. But sometimes you need to understand at least the basic laws of physics before declaring something impossible.

- [Tesla Roadster to 100 km/h in 0.81 seconds / a vehicle for real pilots](https://www.had.si/blog/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/post/tesla-roadster-do-100-km-h-v-081-sekunde-vozilo-za-prave-pilote.md)
- [Porsche Mission S](https://www.had.si/blog/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/post/porsche-mission-s.md)
- [Ferrari Luce / the first electric Ferrari is causing a stir online](https://www.had.si/blog/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/post/ferrari-luce-prvi-elektricni-ferrari-buri-strasti-na-internetih.md)

What did I find? That such a manoeuvre is physically possible in principle. Let’s start with driving on the ceiling. By all rights, a two-tonne car ought to fall to the ground. But if fans underneath the car create low pressure, the difference in air pressure can press it against the surface. This isn’t science fiction. In 2025, a McMurtry Spéirling actually drove upside down on a specially prepared platform.

Then there’s the flying. A car leaving a ramp at a given speed follows a ballistic trajectory for a while. It doesn’t need rocket engines for that. It does need them, however, if it wants to change direction in mid-air, turn around and land safely. That’s where compressed-gas thrusters come in. The simulations I reviewed suggest forces from 20 to 80 kilonewtons – yes, these are different interpretations, because Tesla has not yet provided the exact figures they were working from. For perspective, 80 kilonewtons is a force comparable to the weight of roughly eight tonnes. That kind of thrust could accelerate a two-tonne car very quickly, or help it brake as it falls.

This is where the biggest problem could arise: the amount of compressed air. To hover a two-tonne car, you would need around 20 kilonewtons of constant thrust, which, based on the assumptions used in the simulations, would mean consuming roughly 25 to 40 kilograms of air per second. The tanks would therefore empty extraordinarily quickly.

But the Roadster doesn’t need to hover the whole time. It can launch off the ramp, spend most of its time following a ballistic trajectory, while the thrusters correct its position and slow it down before landing. That is far more feasible than hovering in one place for several seconds.

Now for the crucial question. Was the Tesla Roadster presentation created with artificial intelligence? Perhaps certain scenes were computer-generated or created with CGI. But that still doesn’t mean the manoeuvre shown is physically impossible. And that is the whole point of this story.

Physics does not recognise the argument that something cannot be done because it looks too unbelievable. It recognises forces, acceleration, gravity, pressure and energy. If we understand and apply all of these things properly, we can achieve results that seem completely absurd at first glance.

Of course, that does not mean Tesla has already proved that the Roadster can do all this. Elon Musk has a long history of grand promises and missed deadlines. He unveiled the Roadster back in 2017, and it was supposed to be on the roads in 2020. So a healthy dose of scepticism is entirely justified. But there is a huge difference between not having seen something independently proven yet and declaring it impossible.

I’m not a physicist. But I’m curious enough to try to understand why and how something might work. The more I looked into the physics behind this manoeuvre, the clearer it became that the basic idea is not nearly as mad as it first appears. The execution, of course, is an entirely different story.

Maybe Musk will actually deliver what he promises this time. Maybe we will be waiting for years and years again. But one thing is clear. Just because something seems impossible to us does not mean it is actually impossible. Rather than immediately shouting AI at every incredible scene, it would sometimes be far more useful to ask how such a thing might be possible in the first place. Because it is precisely this kind of curiosity and understanding of physics that drives technology forward.

I would, however, be very pleased if a physicist came along, explained the whole thing from their own perspective and backed it up with calculations.