Free game lets you try Tesla's gravity defying Roadster for yourself
Earlier this month, Elon Musk showed off Tesla’s latest innovation by hosting a demo of a flying car at the SpaceX facility in Texas.
The vehicle was designed in collaboration with SpaceX, where the revamped Tesla Roadster lifted off the ground with the help of cold-gas thrusters. The daring stunt was performed without a driver inside the car, which Musk explained was to ‘make sure we don’t kill anyone’.
During the demonstration, the vehicle used the firm’s space tech to launch into the air, flip and briefly hover before landing with the help of air jets.
However, while the feat was certainly impressive, it doesn’t look like a flying car will be available to buy anytime soon. While Musk has suggested it could go into production early 2028, questions about safety and legality on the roads are yet to be ironed out.
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But while you’re waiting, there is a new game you can now play which enables you to simulate the demo for yourself, and it won’t cost you a penny.
This comes after software engineer Niko Draca developed a game known as Roadflip which allows players to get behind the wheel of a virtual Tesla Roadster and attempt gravity-defying flips inspired by the vehicle’s recent demonstration.
Rather than simply watching the car pull off its spectacular tricks, players can head online and see if they can recreate the stunts themselves.
Montreal-based Draca previously created the tool Hinge Wrapped, which sparked a trend where people would recap their year of dating in December each year.
He also developed an interactive map that shows Drake fans every place in the world that the rapper has mentioned in his songs.
Speaking to UNILAD Tech, Draca explained that the idea for the Tesla-inspired game came after he watched Musk’s demo live and saw people joking about the possibility of pulling off similar tricks on the highway.
He said: “I saw the demo and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy’. And then I started seeing all the jokes online of imagining the guy on the highway next to you doing a kickflip. I was like, ‘Can we actually imagine if you could do that right now?’”
The result was Roadflip, an unofficial Tesla game available for free on browsers that puts players in control of a virtual Roadster, where they can gain points for pulling up flips and stunts in the air.
The game, which came together in just a few days, taps into the nostalgic appeal of classic skateboarding games, with Draca drawing inspiration from the kind of over-the-top tricks associated with the Tony Hawk series.
And judging by the response so far, the project seems to have hit the mark, with Draca going on to say: “I hope people have fun with it, and I’m getting lots of DMs and emails and whatnot being like, ‘Look at my score’ and ‘This is super fun’. I think that’s kind of always the goal, just to build something that puts a smile on people’s faces.”
You can try out the game for yourself here: www.roadflip.lol.