Elon Musk wants to build flying cars and submarine cars

Conqueror of sky and water!

 
Could a flying Model S be in our future? Well, we hope so. 

That dashing rogue Elon Musk, who gathers superlatives like most men gather heart palpitations, has decided that this whole Tesla/SpaceX endeavor he oversees could be combined, really. Visions of Model Ss with Falcon rockets strapped to the roof, like that wonderful Impala-fueled urban legend, are probably dancing through your head right now. We won't dispel those notions. But Musk only invites such mysterious speculations himself, usually when he goes ahead and does something like tell British newspaper The Independent that he could "definitely" build a flying car.

"Maybe we'll make a flying car, just for fun," said Elon, in the opening paragraph to the Independent article; Musk was in London to introduce a right-hand drive Model S to the British public. Tesla's operations in the UK are equally demanding, and some say farfetched: an R&D center in the Midlands and a Supercharger network within 18 months have both been met with controversy, the paper reported. But this sort of thing never fazes Musk.

"We could definitely make a flying car," he elaborated, "but that's not the hard part. The hard part is, how do you make a flying car that's super safe and quiet? Because if it's a howler, you're going to make people very unhappy."

We've grown to know that Musk operates on a specific formula: idle talk, plus lots and lots of money, will equal us hovering from Santa Monica to Bel Air upon a carpet of air and electricity.

What's more, in the same article, Musk mentions that he wants to conquer the oceans: "We will be making a submarine car. It can transition from being a submarine to a car that drives up on the beach. Maybe we'll make two or three, but it wouldn't be more than that. It's not like we'd sell it, because I think the market for submarine cars is quite small."

Visions of that Simpsons episode, where Homer drives an EV1 underwater only to zap the hell out of some fish, come to mind. But if you really analyze Musk's thoughts, which in any other CEO would be deemed inane blathering, what's more possible: a flying car that doesn't look like a Winnebago with wings, or a submersible car from the man who owns James Bond's underwater Lotus?

I really want to see Musk do all of these things—Musk, the man who serves as a lightning rod for the vicarious lives of millions. His future sounds pretty awesome, and judging by his past successes, it's terrifying to think how close it could be. Teslas: making money hand over fist. SpaceX: soon bringing people for the ride. PayPal: still a convenient eBay service (though certainly under attack). Hyperloop: well, we certainly thought that was neat, didn't we?

But that's Musk, who has been elevated to the level of superhero—sometimes rightfully so, sometimes egregiously—that the media falls into rampant speculation if he so much as changes toothpaste brands. Is he a Colgate man, or a Crest aficionado? What will this mean for Paypal stocks?

We're rooting for Musk, who will drag us kicking and screaming into the future upon an ocean of money. While we're at it, here are some other projects we'd like to see Musk throw some spare change toward: a space elevator. A fusion reactor. A Dyson sphere that also has cupholders. Fly-proof teleportation. Drone baseballs. Hot Wheels highway on-ramps. A Tucker Torpedo with a Model S drivetrain. That cut-in-half Renault 11 from A View to a Kill, but as a dune buggy. A LEGO brick that won't hurt when you press on it but instead gives off a soothing aroma of baked cookies.