Tesla unveiled the next-generation Roadster at SpaceX's Texas test facility on the night of Oct 15, 2026. The car drove partway up an inverted ramp, flipped midair using cold-gas thrusters, and jumped over a row of Teslas including a Semi. Tesla claimed 0-60 mph in 0.81 seconds, a top speed of 230+ mph for the Rocket trim, and 300+ miles of range. Three trims were announced: Performance, Thrust, and Rocket. Production is set for 2028, with no price or confirmed production site. Reservations require a $5,000 deposit plus a $45,000 wire transfer within 10 days. Tesla stock initially rose as much as 5.4% premarket to about $382, but faded after the open and was down about 0.8% at $359.60 later that day. Tesla's Q3 earnings on Oct 21 beat estimates: adjusted EPS $0.48 vs $0.43 expected, revenu
The Roadster is a technology and brand showcase, not a revenue driver; Musk has said it won't contribute significantly to Tesla's finances. Investors quickly shifted focus to Q3 margins and the surge in spending on Optimus robots and AI. The energy chief's reported exit added uncertainty.
Tesla's Roadster thruster stunts did lift the stock premarket on Oct 16, production is set for 2028, and reports said energy chief Mike Snyder was leaving ahead of Q3 results due Oct 21. Anthropic's Q3 revenue was $16.8B with an adjusted profit, and some investors were pushing for a $1.5T IPO valuation rather than $2T. This is a personal observation/hyperbole. The Tesla Roadster stunt was real, but the “five parked cars” detail is not confirmed in available reports, which describe a jump over a row of Teslas including a Semi.
Tesla unveiled the next-gen Roadster at SpaceX's Texas test site. Cold-gas thrusters enabled upside-down driving, a midair flip, and a jump over a row of Teslas. Tesla claimed 0-60 mph in 0.81 seconds, 230+ mph top speed for the Rocket trim, and 300+ miles of range, with Performance, Thrust, and Rocket trims.
ESA's Argonaut lunar lander program is intended to deliver tec
CTesla just pulled off the most ridiculous car stunt I've ever seen, and the stock still ended the day down.
MA flying Roadster and the market yawned?
CNot yawned — it jumped five percent premarket, then faded. Investors took one look at the thruster flip and said, 'Cool, now show me margins.'
MThat's the whole story, isn't it? The car drove upside down, jumped over a Semi, and the stock closed down, maybe because Q3 earnings are next week.
CLet's be fair — the stunt itself was genuinely wild. Cold-gas thrusters, midair flip, 0-60 in 0.81 seconds. That's not a car, that's a physics demo.
MIt's a $5,000 deposit plus a $45,000 wire transfer within ten days for a car that doesn't exist until 2028. That's a Kickstarter with better branding.
COh, come on. The original Roadster was also a halo car. It proved electric could be fast. This one proves Tesla can still do things nobody else will even attempt.
MBut who is it for? Musk has said it won't move the needle on revenue. It's a brand flex at a moment when Tesla's energy chief just walked out and net income fell 29 percent.
CThat's exactly my point — the Roadster is the only thing keeping the story alive while the boring stuff bleeds. You can't separate the spectacle from the company.
MI can, actually. The spectacle is a distraction from capex doubling to $3.7 billion and a robotaxi that's still not here. The Roadster is a magic trick while the real business slips.
CSo what should they do? Stop making anything exciting and just post spreadsheets? The reason people still care about Tesla is that it does things like this.
MPeople caring and investors buying are two different things. The stock told you which one matters today.
CFine. But when that Roadster actually ships in 2028 and some guy flips it over a row of Cybertrucks, we'll see who was right.
MIf it ships. And if the thrusters don't void the warranty on the first barrel roll.
CSpeaking of things that might not ship — Anthropic's IPO talk just cooled from two trillion to one and a half trillion.
MThat's still an absurd number for a company that just hit $16.8 billion in quarterly revenue with an adjusted profit. The market's repricing AI hype in real time.
CBut adjusted profit is still profit. Now it's just a question of how insane the multiple is.
MThe multiple is the whole ballgame. If you're paying $1.5 trillion for $67 billion in annualized revenue, you're betting on a decade of perfect execution.
COr you're betting that AI keeps eating software. Which, judging by every earnings call this week, it is.
MDifferent world entirely: the European Space Agency just showed off a lunar crane built in Romania to unload cargo from its Argonaut lander.
CA crane on the Moon. Not a render — actual hardware from two Romanian companies, COMOTI and Initium Space.
MThis is the unglamorous stuff that makes a lunar base possible. Everyone talks about rockets, but unloading cargo in one-sixth gravity is a real engineering problem.
CAnd it's Europe doing it, not just NASA or SpaceX. The Argonaut program is quietly building the logistics layer for a permanent presence.
MI like this story because it's the opposite of the Roadster. No stunts, no premarket pop — just a crane that has to work or the whole mission fails.
CAnd here's one that'll start a fight: a Bloomberg quote floating around says Tesla cut its capex guide by $5 billion six months after raising it by $5 billion.
MI couldn't confirm that specific swing. What we do know is Q3 capex more than doubled year over year to $3.73 billion. That's not cutting — that's spending faster.
CSo the quote might be directionally right but the numbers are fuzzy. The real story is that Tesla is pouring money into Optimus and AI while margins shrink.
MWhich brings us back to the Roadster. You can't have it both ways — either you're disciplined or you're doing barrel rolls over a Semi.
CMaybe the barrel roll is the capex. Ever think of that?
MThat would explain the $45,000 wire transfer.