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Tesla, Tesla<\/em><\/p>\n In 2017, the same year the Tesla Roadster 2.0 prototype was unveiled, former General Motors Vice Chairman and product guru Bob Lutz shared his prediction for the 21st-century automotive future: autonomous vehicles taking over the roads and consumers giving up individual transportation.<\/p>\n Would people still drive?<\/p>\n \u201cPeople of means will still drive performance cars for fun on private tracks,\u201d Lutz said. Just as horses \u2014 once essential to daily transportation \u2014 were reduced to preening at horse shows or circling barrels at rodeos as the automobile took over early 20th-century transit.<\/p>\n With the $250K-plus, flying Tesla Roadster 2.0 production car, Lutz\u2019s sci-fi vision is Elon Musk\u2019s reality.<\/p>\n At its introduction at SpaceX\u2019s sprawling, 4,000-acre Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texas, the Roadster production hypercar did barrel rolls over other Tesla vehicles; drove upside down on a Hot Wheels-style loop; and blew plumes of smoke as it rocketed from 0-60 mph in less than one second.<\/p>\n Spectacular, yes, but stunts only possible on a private track secluded from public roads. Roads that Tesla predicts will soon be choked with autonomous cars like the driverless Waymo and Tesla robotaxis currently serving Austin, Texas \u2014with an eye on Metro Detroit in the near future.<\/p>\n “The Roadster will not move the volume or revenue needle, with production likely limited, and investors should not model it as a growth driver,” wrote analyst Dan Ives, partner and managing director of Yorkville Ives & Co. “What it does is restore the brand halo at the top of the market and put a spotlight on the engineering stack” from a company increasingly considered an artificial intelligence platform that happens to own a vehicle business.<\/p>\n