Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says Tesla’s flying Roadster will be legal in Florida — and could ‘leapfrog golf carts in the Villages’

His comments followed Elon Musk’s Oct. 15 unveiling of the long-awaited Roadster at a SpaceX facility in Texas, years after Tesla first announced plans for the next-generation sports car.

The event, livestreamed on X, featured a Roadster fitted with high-pressure air tanks and thrusters designed to propel it into the air. During the demonstration, the vehicle accelerated up a curved ramp, became airborne, rotated 180 degrees and landed on its wheels.

“Flying cars are real,” Musk declared during the event. He acknowledged the technology’s “success is not guaranteed,” but believes “it will probably work.”

The caveat is that production isn’t expected to begin until 2028 at the earliest, and Tesla has yet to announce a price for the flying “Rocket” version. Buyers can reserve a conventional Roadster with a $5,000 deposit, while the full-flight Rocket model will be available by invitation only.

DeSantis’ endorsement raises a bigger question about the future of flying cars, particularly whether states like Florida can help bring the technology to market despite the regulatory hurdles that remain.

Can Florida make flying cars legal?

While DeSantis may be willing to welcome Tesla’s flying Roadster to Florida, his endorsement alone won’t make the vehicle street-legal — or clear it for flight.

The distinction is between state and federal authority. Florida regulates vehicle registration, licensing and the use of public roads, while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) oversees federal vehicle safety standards and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates aircraft safety.

For Tesla, the regulatory requirements would depend on how the flying Roadster is classified and operated. A vehicle that can briefly jump into the air may face different requirements than one designed for sustained, controlled flight.

Perhaps equally challenging is how such vehicles would be insured. Milad Morgan, founder of Atlas Risk Partners, a licensed property and casualty insurance brokerage, told Moneywise that flying cars introduce a new set of risks for insurers to evaluate.

“For a vehicle capable of road travel and flight, the first insurance question is what it is actually approved and designed to do,” Morgan told Moneywise. “Street legality alone would not establish coverage for airborne use. This is a general underwriting perspective, not confirmation of Tesla’s capabilities, regulatory classification or available insurance.”

Insurers would also need to consider who’s behind the wheel, where the vehicle is being used, maintenance costs and the potential damage from an accident. For example, a failed landing could be far more costly than a typical road collision, Morgan said. Liability for vehicle defects would also be separate from the owner’s insurance coverage.

Daniel Severin, head of global mobility insurance at Mobily, sees another complication: determining who is responsible when something goes wrong.

The challenge, he told Moneywise, is establishing where conventional auto insurance ends and aviation coverage begins, particularly when responsibility could fall on the manufacturer, driver or vehicle operator.

Even so, Severin believes insurers will find a way to cover flying cars, pointing to the industry’s long history of underwriting unusual and emerging risks.

What Waymo can teach insurers about flying cars

The insurance industry has faced similar challenges before, particularly with autonomous vehicles, where traditional measures of driver risk don’t always apply.

Andrei Craciunescu, CEO of RiskCube, pointed to Waymo as an example of how insurers can approach unfamiliar technology without decades of accident data to rely on.

“When autonomous vehicles emerged, the insurance industry had limited historical claims data that could be used to price the risk directly,” Craciunescu told Moneywise.

He said insurers would need to find ways to calculate risk, decide how much coverage to offer and enlist other companies to help cover potentially large claims. A similar approach could work for flying cars, although Craciunescu cautioned that finding insurers willing to share those risks could take time, especially in Europe.

Flying cars face a costly road to reality

Insurance is only one piece of the puzzle. Flying cars have captured the public imagination for decades, but making them an everyday mode of transportation would also require major infrastructure investment.