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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2110 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 16, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Anyone watch the Roadster demo last night? As expected, it had some peak Elon cringe moments, but you don't have to be a great MC when you have a flying car.

Possibly the greatest product demo of all time.

I considered making a culture war post about this, but I suck at writing.

When I watched it, I audibly gasped; the most incredible feat of engineering I've witnessed since I saw the dual Dragon landings on that ocean platform. That said, I've been amazed to see the polarizing response on all the usual sites. You have a vocal contingent going "HOLY HELL THIS IS INCREDIBLE", but also a sizable movement going "this is stupid"/"what are we gonna use this for?"/"you could've solved world hunger instead", etc.

To me, this could've been a rallying reminder of the greatness of human ingenuity. Instead it's just another scissor statement.

I'm really happy with my Tesla and other Elon products but I don't understand why this Roadster thing was a big deal? Aren't the SpaceX rockets much more impressive?

I'm not going to actually get to drive the flying Roadster am I? Can it even fly more than like 10 seconds?

A car that can hang upside down, standing still? A sub-second zero to sixty? Can corner at 2g's?

Forget the flying thing; that was just the cherry on top to show off what they could do. It was easily the most impressive tech demo of all time.

Is it the most impressive tech demo of all time?

It's cool, sure. But was this not already possible, or did it take Elon to build it? Will it be useful in consumer cars? Will consumer cars ever get it?

Are we saying SpaceX stuff is not already more awesome than this?

Was it previously possible to build a car that drives upside down, flips through the air with a soft landing, and then performs a .81 second 0-60?

No, I never would've believed this was humanly possible. I think every other automaker would agree.

Was it previously possible to build a car that drives upside down

Yes. Upside down demos have been around for a while. Fans sucking the car down make it corner better. To show off the fans photo the car upside down. This is a continuation of that concept.

I think most F1 cars could do the upside down drive and 0 to 60 time already, though at speed. Using fans to increase downforce was banned decades ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brabham_BT46

This car was entered in a 1979 Gran Prix.

It's an ultralight single seat car, it's not that different from an F1 car, just with a funny car like shell on.

Sticking a multi thrust system on an F1 car is cool, but the novel thing is combining two pretty well known technology sets.

Typical F1 acceleration is 2.1 to 2.7 seconds 0-60

Ok, then its neat to make a cold gas rocket assisted concept car, but it's still just a combination of 40 year old technologies on a one off concept car.

It's not always easy for normies to understand how awesome rockets and space stuff is -- seriously, how many people actually care and realize the importance of fully reusable launch vehicles? It is easy for normies to understand and get excited by flying cars.

Yeah like great moment but it's thrusters with seemingly very limited capacity. Can't really think of a civilian application even if perfectly stable, reliable and insurable.

I feel like most of the potential impact on my life is very slightly increasing my chances of dying in a very outlandish car crash

I’ve always been comforted by the fact that, if life got tough enough, I could always just drive my car off a cliff. Now I’m starting to worry that might not be enough.

What, and have the car crash that causes my possible death be boring?

I'm more just annoyed this isn't the convertible I was hoping for. The original Roadster is arguably the best car Tesla ever made for that reason and it'd be nice if they'd stop launching them into space for the meme.

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