Video taking off 27x its usual first day

Starman gets the seat for Tesla's airborne Roadster demonstration

news.com.au's presentation footage drew roughly half a million views in its first day, with movie and gaming references filling the comments.

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news.com.au Story of October 17, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 516,543 views a day, 27 times a normal first day on this channel (19,211).

Tesla's new Roadster can FLY

Video summary

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0:43Musk introduces the collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX engineering teams.
3:24Computer graphics show the underside thrusters and fan system before the driving demonstration.
4:18The Roadster climbs a curved vertical ramp for an upside-down run.
5:07The car launches from a ramp, using thrusters to stabilize its movement and land.
7:40The butterfly doors open for the occupant reveal; a second aerial stunt follows at 08:00.

The butterfly doors open, and the passenger reveal comes with a clarification: "Just to be clear, that is not a real human." Inside the Roadster sits Starman, a mannequin along for a demonstration involving ramps, thrusters and airborne maneuvers.

"Tesla's new Roadster can FLY," posted by news.com.au, shows the company's live presentation rather than an independent road test. Elon Musk appears alongside two co-presenters as the car tackles a curved vertical ramp, runs upside down and launches into the air before landing on its wheels.

The presenters explain that an underbody fan creates suction to hold the car against a surface, while cold-gas thrusters help stabilize its airborne movement. Computer graphics show the hardware beneath the spectacle. Musk also says the Roadster will, long-term, be Tesla's only manually driven car.

The upload's estimated first-day views were about 27 times the channel's usual start for regular videos. The comments offer a pop-culture translation of the demonstration: viewers invoke Back to the Future's road-free future, imagine a place for the car in Fast & Furious, and joke that flying cars have arrived before GTA VI.

Published on Trari