According to an all-too-common joke, Elon Musk is a Bond villain come to life. To be fair, something about the Tesla and SpaceX CEO seems to invite the comparisons: Maybe it’s his too-perfect name, or perhaps it’s his ambiguously international charms, but it’s almost certainly his desire to send us to Mars. Now, however, a new possibility presents itself. What if Musk isn’t aspiring to become some borderline Blofeld? What if he instead wants to be more like Q, the good-natured inventor who supplies Bond with his toys?
Here’s a data point in support of that possibility: On Sunday, Musk cropped up on Twitter to claim that the Tesla Model S “floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time.” He went on to explain that “wheel rotation” provided minor thrust, and clarified that key components of the electric vehicle are “sealed,” presumably making them adequately water-resistant to function beneath the surface.
This revelation arrived in response to an article in Electrek discussing a video that shows a Model S plowing through a flooded tunnel. Electrek’s Fred Lambert was skeptical, writing, “You simply don’t want the entire undercarriage of your vehicle to be submerged regardless of if it consists of a large battery pack or an exhaust line.” To be sure, Musk’s comments don’t exactly dispute that premise—he’s not saying that the car is a boat, just that it can function for a bit in water—but it’s still yet another declaration that his luxury vehicle is more powerful than you might think.
Sure, the Model S may not be James Bond’s notorious Lotus Esprit S1 (his submarine car from The Spy Who Loved Me), despite the jokey reference to that fictional vehicle in the Tesla’s interface. But this is, let’s remember, a company that included a “bioweapon defense mode” in some of its vehicles. And the Model S itself already sports a surprisingly robust autopilot mode. Musk has clearly always aimed to make electric cars cool, which often means cramming them with unexpected features and capabilities. In that light, limited boat functionality is hardly surprising.
If nothing else, Musk is admirably chatty about his company’s innovations, comparing favorably to Larry Page, who tried to keep his flying “car” startups a secret. Musk, by contrast, is the sort of guy who wants to keep talking your ear off about his inventions long after you’re ready to leave his laboratory—the sort of guy, in other words, who’s a lot like Bond’s Q.
Seemingly amused by the interest in the Model S’ boatlike capacities, Musk went on to suggest that he’s “planning to do a sports sub car that can drive on roads.” We look forward to reports from anyone who has the opportunity to try it out once it debuts. But if you find a pen on the dashboard, be sure not to click it too many times. The results could be explosive.
