On Thursday, Elon Musk appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast for the third time. When he does that, notable things (and occasionally memes) happen. In this case, he had a few interesting things to say about the future of Tesla's car lineup....but how many of his bold claims come to fruition, as always, remains to be seen.
Musk has already said he intends to offer gas-powered thrusters inspired by his rocket company SpaceX on the new Tesla Roadster; in his interview with Rogan, he added that he also wants to use them to make the car hover above the ground. (He clarified that he wanted this feature to work "without killing people.") The hovering would purportedly be height-limited, floating roughly three feet off the ground, according to Musk.
In case you've forgotten about it, Tesla unveiled the new Roadster back in 2017 (and began taking $50,000 deposits at the same time). The new car has been pushed back until 2022 at the earliest.
Will Tesla try to get compressed gas thrusters approved for road use (and get approval to make a car fly) for what would amount to a party stunt? We suspect not. Even if the tech is feasible, Tesla has a lot on its plate. Musk has promised to get Level 5 autonomy, a Semi-truck and the Cybertruck on the road this year. But, like the yoke-shaped steering wheel and buying a bunch of Bitcoin, it gets people talking.
Musk also told Rogan that the hotly anticipated Cybertruck will be reduced in size by about three percent, noting that it had trouble fitting in his Boring Company tunnels. Musk had cast aside the idea of reducing the truck's size last year; however, he has promised the production glass would be stronger than the demo truck window that broke during the truck's unveiling.
Musk also conveyed that he's proposed a carbon tax to the Biden administration, but interest was not reciprocated. That's not too surprising. However helpful a carbon tax would be for the environment, tax credits for buying EVs are more popular than additional taxes for not doing so.
