A startup says Tesla's Roadster is only the second flying car

That is a vivid piece of theater, but it is a long way from a vehicle you could take off in from a driveway and land at a destination across town. What the demonstration appears to have shown, going by the JFeed account, is a controlled hop with a rotation in it. Nothing in that report, or in the electrive piece, says how high the car went, how long it stayed up, or how far it can travel off the ground. Those numbers matter, and we couldn't find them.

The electrive newsroom, which has covered electric mobility since 2011, made a related point. During the presentation, it wrote, technical specifications were "completely overshadowed" by the flight demonstration, and the car now bears little resemblance to a road-legal vehicle. It also noted that, nine years after the first prototype, little remains of the original Tesla concept in either design or technology.

The claims that did come out were large. Musk said the car would reach 60 mph (97 km/h) from a standstill in one second, and that production is planned to start in 2028. Those are statements from the company's chief executive, not tested results. JFeed also reports that Tesla has not published an official price. A car first shown nine years ago and still without a price or a settled design is a reminder to treat 2028 as a goal rather than a date.

Alef's case, and its limits

Alef is happy to make the comparison on its own terms. The company says its video marked the 1,000th recorded flight of its flying car, and it added that the Tesla Roadster "became the second flying car in history, following Alef." Both lines are Alef's own claims, made in a marketing video, and we haven't independently verified the flight count. The video doesn't make clear what counts as a recorded flight, whether brief hops or sustained trips.

The company's product is the Model A, a fully electric two-seater first announced in mid-2023 by a firm founded in 2015. It is designed to drive on public roads and also to take off and land vertically. Alef's original specifications put its road range at 200 miles (320 km) and its flight range at 110 miles (177 km). That is a different kind of promise from a jump: a car that goes somewhere by air.

There is also a regulatory marker. In 2023 Alef said it had received a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the US Federal Aviation Administration for the Model A, which allows limited flight operations. That is not the same as approval to sell or operate the car for ordinary use, and electrive points out that few details about the vehicle have been disclosed so far. In other words, the rival being held up as the real thing is also short on public detail.

So the fair reading is this. By its own account, Alef claims 1,000 recorded flights, a count from its own marketing video that we can't check, and it holds a limited FAA certificate. Tesla has a dramatic stage demonstration and a production target of 2028. Neither has shown a car that a customer can buy and fly, at least in anything we could read.

Why the label matters

To a casual reader, "flying car" suggests something close to a small aircraft that also fits in a garage. Anything that carries people through the air raises questions of certification, pilot licensing, noise and where it is allowed to land, which is why Alef's limited FAA certificate counts for something even though it falls short of general approval. A car that hops over other cars on a stage sits in a very different category from one meant to cover 110 miles (177 km) in the air.

That gap is why Alef's jab lands with some people and not others. It is clearly self-promotion, and it is timed to ride Tesla's publicity. Still, the underlying point is not silly: if Tesla's car is a thruster-assisted jumper, calling it a flying car borrows a word that others have been working toward for years. If Tesla's engineers plan something more ambitious, they haven't said so in anything we could read.

What is known is thin but clear: a demonstration happened, with thruster technology tied to SpaceX, and Musk has made speed and timing claims. What is not known is whether the system can be made safe and legal for a car that also has to drive on ordinary roads, or what it would cost. Tesla hasn't published a price.

What to watch

The first thing to look for is paper rather than video: a price, a reservation policy, and any filing or regulator notice that says how Tesla intends to classify a car that leaves the ground. Next, watch whether Tesla releases figures for the thruster system itself, such as height, duration and what happens in a failed landing. Any Tesla event or earnings call that follows is a chance for Musk to be asked, with the 2028 production target as the obvious benchmark.

On Alef's side, the test is whether it can turn its claimed thousand recorded flights and a limited certificate into something it can deliver to customers. Its published road and air ranges are promises, and a feed of attention-grabbing videos will not substitute for deliveries.

So here is a question for you: if a car can jump over other cars and land on its wheels, as Tesla's did, is that a flying car, or just a very expensive stunt that happens to be fun to watch?

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