{"id":50377,"date":"2026-10-21T00:23:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/10\/21\/could-elon-musks-tesla-flying-car-ever-be-legal-in-ireland\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T00:23:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:23:39","slug":"could-elon-musks-tesla-flying-car-ever-be-legal-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/10\/21\/could-elon-musks-tesla-flying-car-ever-be-legal-in-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Elon Musk&#8217;s Tesla flying car ever be legal in Ireland?"},"content":{"rendered":"<section itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-epic-field=\"content\">\n<p><b>Analysis: The Tesla Roadster demo was brilliant theatre but who in Ireland decides if a car like that can use our roads if it ever goes on sale?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A Tesla Roadster launched itself off a ramp in Texas on Thursday, rolled over in mid-air and landed on its wheels. It was brilliant theatre, but it also raised a question the stunt couldn\u2019t answer: if a car like that ever goes on sale, who in Ireland would decide whether it can use our roads, never mind our airspace? The honest answer is that nobody knows yet.<\/p>\n<h2><b>What did Tesla actually show?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>The two-seat Roadster, developed with SpaceX, drove up an inverted ramp, then used thrusters to roll over in the air and land. Engineers said it uses 10 hrusters fed by 600 litres of compressed air. Nobody was aboard; the driver\u2019s seat held a mannequin in a spacesuit. Even Musk said success wasn\u2019t guaranteed, and Tesla says production begins in 2028. That\u2019s a hop with a barrel roll, not a flight. The version Tesla calls &#8220;air ready&#8221; seats just one person. Calling it a flying car is generous.<\/p>\n<p data-embed=\"youtube\" data-id=\"BYWy6SyJRZo\"><cookie-consent-banner embed=\"youtube\" embed-name=\"YouTube\" logo-url=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/djstatic\/dotie\/img\/third-party-logos\/youtube.png\" privacy-policy-url=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy?hl=en-IE\"><\/cookie-consent-banner><iframe allowfullscreen=\"true\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/BYWy6SyJRZo\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"360\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin\" width=\"640\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><i><b>From ABC News, Elon Musk unveils Tesla&#8217;s new Roadster &#8211; and it can fly<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<h2><b>Who would approve a car like this in Ireland?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>For an ordinary car, the route is well worn. The National Standards Authority of Ireland is the State&#8217;s approval authority under the EU\u2019s type-approval rules, and the Road Safety Authority says Revenue won\u2019t register a new vehicle without a certificate of conformity or an individual approval. That system assumes a vehicle that stays on the ground.<\/p>\n<h2><b>And who approves an aircraft?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Aircraft sit under a different regime. The EU Aviation Safety Agency has had a dedicated special condition for vertical take-off and landing aircraft since 2019, created because these designs differ from conventional helicopters and planes. Tesla\u2019s own website, according to CBS, says the flying version isn\u2019t approved for public roads. A machine trying to be both car and aircraft would fall between two rulebooks, and a number plate is not permission to enter controlled airspace.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Why treat the timeline with caution?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Because this car has form. The Roadster was first shown in 2017 with a promised 2020 production start, and the date has slipped repeatedly since. Reservation holders have waited the best part of a decade. Nothing in Thursday\u2019s demonstration proves a customer can buy a flying version, or that it would work on an ordinary wet Irish road, let alone in Irish weather.<\/p>\n<p data-embed=\"youtube\" data-id=\"qt5p-_tE8d0\"><cookie-consent-banner embed=\"youtube\" embed-name=\"YouTube\" logo-url=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/djstatic\/dotie\/img\/third-party-logos\/youtube.png\" privacy-policy-url=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy?hl=en-IE\"><\/cookie-consent-banner><iframe allowfullscreen=\"true\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/qt5p-_tE8d0\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"360\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin\" width=\"640\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><i><b>From Tesla, coverage of the Roadster event in Texas last week<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<h2><b>What would regulators actually need to settle?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Quite a lot, as it happens. They would need to decide how such a vehicle is classified, which safety standards apply and under what conditions it could operate, and the manufacturer would have to show its design meets them. Ireland wouldn\u2019t be deciding in isolation either, since vehicle approvals are largely European and aircraft certification is EASA\u2019s job. But the first practical question would land here: where, exactly, is it allowed to take off? Insurers would want to know how often the thrusters can be fired and what happens when they fail.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Is Ireland already preparing for flying vehicles?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>In a way, yes, though not with cars. The \u00c9AL\u00da-AER project at Shannon, completed last October, tested drone traffic management alongside air traffic control, ran use cases including air-taxi operations, and even studied how the public feels about such flights. The difference is that those are purpose-built aircraft designed for managed airspace. A sports car with a rocket kit is not. Air taxis, which I\u2019ve explored here before, are the nearer prospect, and even they depend on approval and airspace work that is still under way.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Would any of this help the ordinary driver?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Not for the commute, at least for now. Dublin\u2019s traffic problem won\u2019t be solved by a performance car with thrusters, and a one-seater that jumps is a long way from a family car. Nobody is commuting from Naas to the Docklands in a thruster-assisted sports car. The practical questions are dull but decisive: how would it be insured, where could it legally take off and land, and who investigates a crash that breaks both road and aviation rules?<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image of a car in the air being fired upwards by trusters\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/00252f1d-614.jpg?ratio=1.78\"><figcaption>The Roadster was first shown in 2017 with a promised 2020 production start, and the date has slipped repeatedly since. Photo: Tesla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>My own reading is that Tesla has proved a stunt works, not that a product does. Anyone in aviation knows the distance between a successful demonstration and a certified, insured, maintainable machine is measured in years, and plenty of ideas don&#8217;t survive it.<\/p>\n<p>That isn\u2019t a reason to sneer at the engineering, which was impressive, and fair play to the engineers. It\u2019s a reason to wait for the paperwork before planning the commute. I\u2019d also be wary of treating spectacle as evidence. A controlled stunt over a line of cars, with no one aboard, shows what the hardware can do on its best day, not on an average Tuesday in November.<\/p>\n<p>Tesla may yet surprise us before 2028. The harder question is whether Irish regulators, insurers and drivers would want a car that flies at all &#8211; and which of them gets to say no first?<\/p>\n<h3><b>Follow RT\u00c9 Brainstorm on WhatsApp and Instagram for more stories and updates<\/b><\/h3>\n<hr>\n<p><b>The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RT\u00c9<\/b><\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Analysis: The Tesla Roadster demo was brilliant theatre but who in Ireland decides if a car like that can use our roads if it ever goes on sale? A Tesla Roadster launched itself off a ramp in Texas on Thursday, rolled over in mid-air and landed on its wheels. It was brilliant theatre, but it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}