WASHINGTON — Tesla’s new Roadster drove up a curved ramp in Texas on Thursday night, left the end of it and landed on its wheels. By Friday, a senior Department of Transportation official acknowledged to CBS News that there is no clear answer on who would decide whether a car like that is safe.
The obvious candidate is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which typically oversees vehicles but delegates safety certification to the automaker, according to CBS News. In a statement, the agency said the manufacturer “must ensure that it does not defy applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards” and that NHTSA “will continue to monitor the situation.” That self-certification system is the one the agency is already examining in its audit of the Tesla Cybercab, opened in September.
A car that leaves the ground would seem to be the Federal Aviation Administration‘s business instead. It is not, at least by the agency’s own account. The FAA told CBS News the Tesla vehicle “does not meet the FAA definition of an aircraft.” One agency leaves certification to Tesla, the other says the car is not an aircraft, and the version built to fly has no obvious federal owner.
What Tesla showed was a prototype. It launched the car off the ramp using cold-gas thrusters developed with SpaceX, and Elon Musk said afterward that “it’s not necessarily a safety-optimized car,” NBC News reported. Tesla’s website says the flying variant is not approved for public road use, CBS News reported. Musk put production in 2028 and no price has been announced.
The money is just as unsettled. NBC said the base car needs an initial deposit of $50,000 and the Thrust version $250,000. Engadget reported a $5,000 reservation with $45,000 due within 10 days, plus another $245,000 for Thrust, and that the invite-only Rocket version sits above both. CBS said a non-flying version can be reserved with a $5,000 deposit. TEH could not load Tesla’s own reservation page to settle it, and the 0.81-second 0-60 mph run Tesla showed is the company’s own figure. Engadget places the event at SpaceX’s test site in McGregor; CBS says Waco.
Tesla has not said what the flying version would cost to build, and the company’s operating margin fell to 1.4% in the second quarter.
CBS News asked Tesla which agencies it is working with and had not published an answer when it last updated its report on Friday afternoon. Until Tesla names one, the question the Transportation Department official could not answer stays open: who signs off on a car built to leave the road?
