Elon Musk Wants To Build A Rocket-Powered Tesla Roadster That Can Hover 'Without Killing People'

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that he wants to add rocket thrusters to the Roadster four-seat sports car to make it hover.

What Happened: Talking to Joe Rogan on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast streamed on Spotify Technology SA’s SPOT service, the entrepreneur said, “I want [the Roadster] to hover, and I was trying to figure out how to make this thing hover without, you know, killing people.”

“Maybe it can hover like a meter above the ground, or something like that. If you plummet, it’ll blow out the suspension but you’re not gonna die.”

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Musk also touched on the yoke like steering wheel added to the new Model S and Model X vehicles, which were announced last month.

Rogan asked him whether those steering wheels were legal, to which he replied in the affirmative — “I mean they use a yoke in Formula One.”

Musk also gave out some details on a possible future Tesla electric van, saying the automaker could put in solar panels — thanks to the van’s flat and large surface area.

“You could also have, maybe, a roof where it is solar, and then, when it is stationary, [the roof] goes out and provides shade, and maybe triples your area or something like that. Now, you triple the area, and you have a big, flat surface, you could maybe start charging enough where you start getting like 30 miles a day,” said Musk.

Why It Matters: In September last year, Musk created a buzz when he smoked weed with the podcast host.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said last month it had contacted Tesla on the possible use of the yoke steering wheel for the Model S, CNet reported.

The agency said it “cannot determine if the steering wheel meets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard." If the automaker is in violation of the standards, the yoke may not be allowed.

A number of companies are working on electric vans including Arrival, which plans to merge with CIIG Merger Corp CIIC and Amazon.com, Inc AMZN-backed Rivian.  

See Also: Biden Says Entire Federal Fleet Will Be Replaced With Electric Vehicles — Workhorse, Lordstown Surge

Price Action: Tesla shares closed 0.85% at $811.66 on Thursday.

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Photo by Automobile Italia on Flickr