Elon Musk vs China: The Flying Car War Just Started! — Transcript

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1. 0:07[music]
2. 0:12[music]
3. 0:17>> America just fired the first shot in the
4. 0:19flying car war, and China is scrambling
5. 0:21to respond.
6. 0:23On October 15th, 2026, at a SpaceX
7. 0:26rocket testing facility in Texas, Tesla
8. 0:28unveiled a car that can fly, do barrel
9. 0:31rolls, and drive upside down. Meanwhile,
10. 0:33China has three separate companies
11. 0:35trying to build flying cars, and all
12. 0:37three are taking completely different
13. 0:39approaches. This is the new space race,
14. 0:41except it's happening on the road.
15. 0:44>> [cheering]
16. 0:46>> But, I think we should get Elon out here
17. 0:48to talk more about that. What do you
18. 0:49think?
19. 0:50>> [cheering]
20. 0:51>> Elon, come on out.
21. 0:52>> Elon, come on out.
22. 1:13>> All right, you're going to see some
23. 1:15crazy stuff tonight.
24. 1:18Like
25. 1:21the We need an audience to prove that
26. 1:24it's not AI or SI.
27. 1:28So, you guys can tell people you saw it
28. 1:29with your eyes.
29. 1:31Because what you see with your eyes, you
30. 1:33will not
31. 1:33>> Let's start with America's weapon, the
32. 1:36Tesla Roadster. SpaceX cold gas
33. 1:38thrusters, 10 nozzles, 600 L of
34. 1:41compressed air, two carbon over-wrapped
35. 1:44pressure vessels, fan suction system
36. 1:46pulling 2 Gs of downforce, 0 to 60 in
37. 1:490.81 seconds, top speed over 230, and
38. 1:53the exhaust comes out faster than the
39. 1:55speed of sound. This is not a car. This
40. 1:58is a rocket with wheels, and it did
41. 2:00three live demonstrations that night.
42. 2:03>> [music]
43. 2:18[music]
44. 2:23[music]
45. 2:32[music]
46. 2:41[music]
47. 2:47[music]
48. 3:25[music]
49. 3:30>> Upside down driving, barrel rolls, a
50. 3:33kickflip over the entire lineup. All
51. 3:36live, all real, all powered by literal
52. 3:38rocket engines.
53. 3:40Now, let's look at what China is doing.
54. 3:57>> [music]
55. 4:10[music]
56. 4:22[music]
57. 4:27>> China's first contender,
58. 4:29the BYD Yangwang U9, 1,300 horsepower,
59. 4:34$233,000,
60. 4:36and it can jump about 6 in off the
61. 4:38ground using a hydraulic suspension
62. 4:41system called DiSus-X. It can also dance
63. 4:43and drive on three wheels. BYD released
64. 4:46this demo in January 2025, and the car
65. 4:49has been on sale since August 2024.
66. 4:52So, in terms of actually being
67. 4:53available, China is ahead. You can buy
68. 4:56this car today.
69. 4:57But, let's be honest, 6 in is not
70. 4:59flying.
71. 5:01>> [music]
72. 5:47[music]
73. 5:50>> China's second contender,
74. 5:52XPeng's Aero HT division. They built
75. 5:55something called the land aircraft
76. 5:57carrier, a six-wheeled truck with a
77. 5:59detachable drone module on top. The
78. 6:01drone pops off, flies around, comes
79. 6:04back, and parks itself. $280,000,
80. 6:085,000 orders already. They're building a
81. 6:10factory in Guangzhou with capacity for
82. 6:1310,000 units a year. But again, the
83. 6:15truck does not fly. A separate aircraft
84. 6:18does. If that counts as a flying car,
85. 6:20then so does a pickup truck with a Mavic
86. 6:22on the dashboard. And China's third
87. 6:25entry, this one is wild. Dream, the
88. 6:28robot vacuum cleaner company.
89. 6:30They showed up to CES 2026 with a
90. 6:33hypercar prototype called the Nebula,
91. 6:351,800 horsepower, and get this, solid
92. 6:38fuel rocket boosters on the back. They
93. 6:40claim 0 to 60 in 0.9 seconds. But here's
94. 6:44the problem. Solid fuel fires once, it's
95. 6:47done. No recharging, no control, and
96. 6:50they've never actually demonstrated it.
97. 6:52It's a render, a very pretty render, but
98. 6:55still a render. Meanwhile, Elon's car
99. 6:57did multiple live runs using reusable
100. 7:00compressed air in front of 4,000 people.
101. 7:03>> So.
102. 7:05>> [cheering]
103. 7:09>> Yeah, I think the last time we
104. 7:13put Roadster with SpaceX, we had Starman
105. 7:16in it, and
106. 7:18maybe we should check. Did we
107. 7:20Did we put anyone in the car, folks?
108. 7:21>> Yeah, I
109. 7:22think Starman's going to make an
110. 7:23appearance.
111. 7:26I think he went for a little ride.
112. 7:29>> Any minute now.
113. 7:29>> Yeah.
114. 7:30>> [laughter]
115. 7:31>> So, yeah.
116. 7:32>> Here he is.
117. 7:35>> No?
118. 7:36Come on.
119. 7:39Anticipation.
120. 7:41>> Me, but
121. 7:41>> All right. There he is.
122. 7:44Just being quiet.
123. 7:48Uh, just to be clear, that is not a real
124. 7:50human.
125. 7:52>> [laughter]
126. 7:52>> So, here's the scoreboard. America has
127. 7:55one entry, one, but it's powered by
128. 7:57actual SpaceX rocket technology, and it
129. 8:00demonstrated flying live. China has
130. 8:02three entries. One bounces 6 in,
131. 8:05one carries a drone on a truck, and one
132. 8:08is still a render, but don't count China
133. 8:10out. BYD is the world's biggest EV
134. 8:12maker. They dominate batteries. They
135. 8:15dominate price. China's government is
136. 8:17pushing what they call the low-altitude
137. 8:19economy, building infrastructure for
138. 8:21flying vehicles. And XPeng's factory is
139. 8:24already going up. The real question is,
140. 8:27which approach wins long-term?
141. 8:29China's strategy is incremental. Start
142. 8:31with what works, suspension tricks,
143. 8:34drone modules, and build from there.
144. 8:36This is how China won the EV war. They
145. 8:39didn't try to build the best car first,
146. 8:41they built the cheapest one. Then they
147. 8:43scaled. Then they improved. Now BYD
148. 8:46sells more EVs than anyone on Earth, but
149. 8:49flying cars are different. You can't
150. 8:51incrementally add rocket engines. You
151. 8:53either have SpaceX or you don't.
152. 8:55America's strategy through Tesla and
153. 8:57SpaceX is the moon shot. Skip the steps.
154. 9:00Just strap rockets to a car and figure
155. 9:02out the details later. History says moon
156. 9:05shots either fail spectacularly or
157. 9:07change the world forever. SpaceX itself
158. 9:10was a moon shot. They blew up rockets
159. 9:12for years. Now they land them on drone
160. 9:14ships. And what we saw on October 15th
161. 9:16in Texas looked a lot like changing the
162. 9:18world.
163. 9:20>> [snorts]
164. 9:21>> So, today marks the day that we
165. 9:23build the first world's best flying car
166. 9:26and the last best driver's car. When do
167. 9:29you want to get it to customers?
168. 9:31>> Uh, we we we enter production in 2028.
169. 9:35Actually.
170. 9:36>> Actually,
171. 9:37>> [laughter]
172. 9:38>> for real.
173. 9:40>> [cheering]
174. 9:42>> Anything left in your bag?
175. 9:48I think we might have one more little
176. 9:51thing. Should we do it? Let's go.
177. 9:54Let's do the last thing.
178. 10:09>> Tesla starts production in 2028 and
179. 10:12they're already teasing the next stunt.
180. 10:15Evil Knievel's Snake River Canyon jump
181. 10:17at Mach 0.5.
182. 10:19380 miles per hour across a canyon in a
183. 10:22car. The original attempt in 1974 failed
184. 10:25when Knievel's rocket-powered Skycycle
185. 10:27parachute opened too early. Elon wants
186. 10:30to do it right this time. The flying car
187. 10:32war has only just begun but round one,
188. 10:35America wins. Not because of batteries,
189. 10:38China actually wins that. Not because of
190. 10:40motors, China wins that too. Not because
191. 10:44of price, China destroys everyone on
192. 10:46price. America wins this round because
193. 10:49of rockets, pure and simple. SpaceX
194. 10:51technology in a street legal car. No
195. 10:54other company on Earth has that
196. 10:55combination and right now only one
197. 10:58country has a CEO who runs both a car
198. 11:00company and a rocket company at the same
199. 11:02time.
200. 11:03That is the unfair advantage China
201. 11:05cannot copy, at least not yet. What do
202. 11:07you think? Who wins the flying car war
203. 11:10long-term? Drop your answer in the
204. 11:12comments and subscribe because this
205. 11:14story is far from over.
206. 11:17>> [music]
207. 11:51[music]
208. 11:54>> Woo!