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Tesla Roadster performance specs are actual and not theoretical, says test driver
Emile Bouret, the man behind the wheel of the next-gen Roadster during the vehicle’s test drives last November, recently called on all car enthusiasts to support the upcoming all-electric supercar. According to the veteran test driver, vehicles like the next-generation Roadster have the potential to make the automotive world a “better place,” considering that it would likely trigger a race to make cars that are even more impressive.
Bouret has worked with Tesla since the company’s early days. A close friend of Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen and a 28-year veteran of the auto industry, Bouret has been asked to test drive the electric car makers’ vehicles from the original Tesla Roadster and the Model S. During his interview with YouTube’s VINwiki channel, Bouret admitted that he does not really understand the hate being directed towards the next-gen Tesla Roadster.
“I love that I live in a world where all these cars exist. You have Koenigseggs and Paganis and Ferraris and Lamborghinis and McLarens and Porsches and Rimacs and Teslas. So, I know there’s a lot of hate out there, but I just don’t understand it. If you’re a car person, wouldn’t you root for everybody? I’m definitely rooting for them because the world will be a better place if that car does get built and it gets on the road, because other people are gonna build cars to beat it — and we’re gonna win.”
The next-generation Tesla Roadster gave the auto industry a massive surprise when Elon Musk unveiled the vehicle last November. The all-electric supercar’s claimed specs, after all, including its 0-60 mph time of 1.9 seconds, it’s quarter-mile time of 8.8 seconds, and its range of 620 miles per charge, have caused some controversy among conventional car enthusiasts. Among the most prominent points of skepticism include speed limitations because of the vehicle’s tires, as well as battery technology that is yet to be attained.
Tesla, however, has assured that the specs announced for the next-gen Roadster are actually conservative. According to Bouret, the upcoming all-electric supercar’s figures related by Elon Musk were not theoretical. They were the actual numbers that their tests have shown.
“Those aren’t theoretical. Those aren’t calculations. We’ve done those numbers. And I probably shouldn’t say that those numbers are even conservative, but they are. That thing is going to be a proper weapon,” he said.
The pervading doubts cast on the next-generation Tesla Roadster’s speed and range are understandable, considering that no other vehicle on the road today boasts comparable specs and performance. Over the past few months, however, Tesla has been dropping hints that the company does have all the necessary resources it needs to attain, or even surpass, the vehicle’s specs that were announced last November.
A white next-gen Tesla Roadster makes an appearance during the 2018 annual shareholders meeting. [Credit: Dennis Pascual/Twitter]
Just last month, for example, Elon Musk openly discussed the idea of using some of SpaceX’s technology to augment the performance capabilities of the next-generation Tesla Roadster. According to Musk, the upcoming supercar would use Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPV), which are used by SpaceX’s Falcon rockets during re-entry and landing, to help the car’s acceleration and maneuverability. As we noted in a previous report, the seemingly outlandish idea is actually feasible.
As for the next-gen Roadster’s battery technology, Tesla CTO JB Straubel discussed it best during the company’s Q1 2018 earnings call. While addressing a question about the Tesla Semi’s range, Straubel noted that much of the doubts behind the company’s estimated range for its vehicles comes from a misunderstanding of the company’s battery tech.
“I think the key point is that it doesn’t require a dramatic breakthrough. So there’s a fundamental misunderstanding, I think, of what the current technology in our existing products can actually do. If they’re benchmarking sort of the best battery pack they can buy from a supplier, and then mapping that with what the Semi could do, it doesn’t solve. I think that’s maybe where most of it is coming from, but we basically have what we need in-house, and understand how to do those specs today,” Straubel said.
The next-generation Tesla Roadster is expected to enter production sometime in 2020. Test drives for the vehicle are expected to begin late next year.
Watch Emile Bouret’s discussion of the next-generation Tesla Roadster in the video below.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
The Boring Company has modified a Tesla powered tunnel truck to carry freight containers underground.
The Boring Company has found a second job for the Tesla hardware it already runs underground. In a post on X, Elon Musk’s tunneling company showed its latest Prufrock Liner Truck modified to carry a standard 20 foot shipping container. “Using TBC tunnels to transport freight,” the company wrote. “The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20′ shipping container. Fits like a glove!”
The photo shows a red container sitting on a long, low white chassis parked outside, with drive hardware visible at one end. The Boring Company did not say where or when freight hauling would start, which customers it has in mind, or how many trucks it is converting.
Using TBC tunnels to transport freight.
The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20’ shipping container.
Fits like a glove! https://t.co/VV0phWK4fc
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) October 19, 2026
Until now, the liner trucks have hauled concrete. Teslarati reported in August on Liner Truck 3, which uses Model 3 battery packs and drive units to move more than 22,000 pounds of precast tunnel segments to the boring machine. It has 28 miles of range, tops out at 12 mph, and is piloted remotely from the company’s operations center in Texas. The freight version appears to be the same platform with a different bed, and The Boring Company has not said whether it will also be remotely piloted.
Freight has been on the company’s menu for years. When TBC updated its product lineup in 2021, its freight tunnel was described as sized to fit a standard shipping container, “barely.” The company later used the idea at Tesla’s own factory, where Prufrock 3 dug a tunnel to Giga Texas that now moves finished Cybertrucks away from the production line.
The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D in September at a $23 billion valuation, and Teslarati has covered how that money is tied to a UAE tunneling push and a faster Nashville build. In Nashville, Prufrock MB1 and MB2 are mining at the same time, and a third machine is expected to launch in late October. Each machine needs a steady supply of liner trucks, so any design that works for segments and containers alike gives the company more use out of the same Tesla parts.
The Vegas Loop remains the only Boring Company system open to the public, and it moves passengers in Tesla vehicles. A freight service would be a separate product, and the post gave no indication that one is close to launch. For now, it is a truck, a container and a short caption saying they fit together.
Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”
SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.
It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.
Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.
Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.
Elon Musk revealed in a post on X that “Permits were impossible to get,” explaining the fate of The Boring Company’s most ambitious East Coast proposal.
The comment responded to a query about what became of his July 20, 2017 announcement that he had “just received verbal govt approval” for an underground Hyperloop connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., capable of carrying passengers from the Big Apple to the Nation’s Capital in just 29 minutes.
The Boring Company receives verbal ‘approval’ to build NY to DC Hyperloop tunnel
The 2017 post, which envisioned city-center stations and multiple elevators in each city, sparked immediate scrutiny. Local and state officials in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. said they had no knowledge of any approval. A White House spokesperson confirmed only “promising conversations” about the transformative infrastructure.
Musk clarified shortly after that there was “still a lot of work” to do for formal approvals.
@cybrtrkguy Permits were impossible to get
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
Limited progress followed, as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s administration issued a conditional utility permit and supported work near Fort Meade. In 2018, Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary permit for site preparation and excavation on a vacant lot at 53 New York Ave. NE in the NoMa neighborhood, which The Boring Company said could become a station.
A draft environmental assessment for a D.C.-Baltimore segment was released in 2019. Yet, by April 2021, the company had removed the project from its website, and the Federal Highway Administration reported receiving no indication of further interest. Communication with Maryland officials had ceased.
The full corridor would have required coordination among the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, the Federal Highway Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and other agencies.
Environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, utility clearances, and approvals for novel infrastructure added to the overall complexity of the project and its approval.
Speculation on the permitting barriers centers around a few factors, but a multi-state, multi-level route involving unproven high-speed vacuum-tube technology inherently triggers exhaustive safety, environmental, and engineering reviews that can stretch for years, even for conventional projects.
There are also other elements, of course, like officials who may face political exposure if a privately funded, untested system encountered anything such as cost overruns, delays, or safety issues. On the outset of this project, there were limited things such as engineering plans or demonstrated technology maturity, which also added to the potential skepticism.
The East Coast vision for Boring Co., once framed as a privately funded revolution that could reshape Northeast travel, quietly ended without construction of the promised network. Musk’s recent statement frames the outcome as a regulatory impasse, unfortunate but not unexpected.
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027
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