Tesla's flying Roadster is a weapon in the talent wars

Tesla's second-generation Roadster is here.

Did the automaker build it for shoppers or for its talent pipeline? Tesla Elon Musk stood onstage while the new Tesla Roadster (literally, and figuratively) flew by.

Is it fully legal? Musk doesn't know.

But is it a secret weapon in the ongoing talent wars? Very, very likely yes.

Tesla's Roadster is back .

Now, it kinda flies, and I'm not just being hyperbolic about its speed. (Although, I guess, that would be a fair read, too.) On Thursday, CEO Elon Musk unveiled the second-generation Roadster.

It's capable of doing "crazy gymnastics," Musk said, like hopping off the ground and spinning in the air.

The prototype also sprints from standing to 60 mph in 0.8 seconds, Tesla claims — and the automaker said the production model will be even quicker.

Will the two-door electric sports car be street legal? Who knows.

Instead, the car is accomplishing something more tangible — and more obviously Musk-like: make Tesla look like the kind of company that can build things other companies cannot.

That's a useful message for Wall Street and for the engineers Tesla wants to hire.

Tesla is already valued far more like a tech company than a traditional automaker.

For years, investors have bet heavily on its ambitions in autonomy, artificial intelligence, robotics, and robotaxis.

A flying (or, at least, hopping) Roadster does not prove those businesses will work, but it makes Tesla's technological ambitions more legible.