Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is so enamored with his company’s Model S, he thinks it can walk on water. Or at least drive through it, making it the world’s first all-electric amphibious car. Sort of.
Apparently inspired by watching this video of a Model S driver in Kazakhstan successfully driving through a flooded underpass, Musk tweeted that the Model S totally can be driven through water, with the spinning wheels helping to propel the car.
Tesla owner drives through a flooded tunnel & out the other side https://t.co/RmPxdZShhq
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2016
We *def* don’t recommended [sic] this, but Model S floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time. Thrust via wheel rotation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2016
Musk has a history of daydreaming about amphibious cars. Back in 2013, the Tesla CEO purchased a Lotus Esprit used in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, famous for its purported ability to turn into a submarine. Musk says he wants to make the movie prop into a functional submarine-car, and he hid an easter egg referencing the submersible Esprit in the Model S’s control panel.
Will Tesla make a mass-produced submarine sports car? Elon’s being cheeky about it:
If curious abt TSWLM car, am still planning to do a sports sub car that can drive on roads. Just a side project. Limited market potential :)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2016
Still, while Musk claims the Model S will do a passable job pretending to be a boat, we have to dissuade you from trying it yourself. As we all learned from years of playing Oregon Trail, fording the river rarely goes well.
This story originally appeared on Road & Track.
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