From online maps to flying cars: Elon Musk’s biggest innovations

Elon Musk has moved from internet businesses and digital payments to electric vehicles, reusable rockets, satellite internet and brain-computer technology. His latest ambition is a car that can briefly lift itself into the air.

On Thursday, October 15, 2026, Tesla unveiled a redesigned Roadster equipped with rocket-style thrusters developed with SpaceX.

The demonstration showed the sports car lifting into the air, turning mid-flight and landing, while the company said production would begin in 2028.

However, the demonstration did not establish that the vehicle could fly over long distances like an aircraft.

The unveiling reflects a pattern in Musk’s career: backing ambitious technologies that aim to change how people communicate, travel, access information and interact with machines.

Although Musk is often associated with these products, he did not personally invent every technology. His role has varied across the companies he founded, co-founded, financed or leads.

Here are some of the major ventures and innovations associated with him, from his early internet businesses to his latest automotive ambitions.

1. Zip2: Bringing maps and business directories online

Before electric cars and rockets, Musk’s first major business venture was Zip2, an online city guide and mapping service he co-founded with his brother, Kimbal Musk, in 1995.

The company helped newspapers establish online directories and provide maps and directions to users at a time when the internet was still developing as a mainstream commercial service.

Compaq acquired Zip2 in 1999 in a deal valued at more than $300m, giving Musk capital to pursue other ventures.

Zip2 was not the invention of online maps, but it was an early attempt to make digital directories and location information commercially useful.

2. X.com and PayPal: Making online payments easier

After the sale of Zip2, Musk co-founded X.com in 1999, an online financial services and payments company.

X.com later merged with Confinity, whose products included a digital payment service.

The combined business became PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5bn in stock. Musk was among PayPal’s largest shareholders.

Musk did not invent PayPal single-handedly. His contribution came through X.com and his involvement in the business that evolved into the online payment company.

The sale also provided him with funds to invest in more ambitious projects, including space exploration and electric vehicles.

3. SpaceX: Reusable rockets and commercial spaceflight

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of reducing the cost of space travel and eventually enabling human settlement beyond Earth.

The company helped advance the use of reusable rockets, including Falcon 9 boosters that return to Earth and land after launch. Reusing major rocket components can reduce the need to build an entirely new rocket for every mission.

SpaceX has also developed the Dragon spacecraft, which transports cargo and astronauts, and is developing Starship, a fully reusable transportation system intended for missions to Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars.

Musk’s role has included leading the company and overseeing its engineering and product development, while the technologies themselves are the work of large teams of engineers and scientists.

4. Tesla: Electric cars for the mass market

Tesla is perhaps the company most closely associated with Musk. He joined the electric vehicle company as an early investor in 2004 and became its chief executive in 2008.

Tesla’s first vehicle, the Roadster, debuted in 2008. The company subsequently introduced models including the Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y, helping bring electric cars into the luxury and mass-market segments.

Tesla did not invent the electric car, which existed long before the company was founded. Its contribution has been developing and commercialising electric vehicles, battery systems, charging infrastructure and driver-assistance technology at scale.

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The company has also expanded into energy storage, with products designed for homes, businesses and electricity networks.

5. Starlink: Internet delivered by satellites

Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite internet service, designed to provide broadband connectivity in places where conventional internet infrastructure is limited, unreliable or expensive.

Instead of relying solely on cables and ground-based networks, the service uses satellites in low Earth orbit to connect users through ground terminals.

SpaceX says its satellite constellation is intended to deliver high-speed internet access to users around the world.

6. Neuralink: Connecting computers to the human brain

Neuralink is developing brain-computer interface technology intended to allow people to control computers and other devices through signals from their brains.

Its system uses an implant to record neural activity, alongside electronics and software that interpret those signals.

The company says one of its aims is to help people with paralysis interact with digital devices.

The technology is part of a wider field of research into brain-computer interfaces, which involves scientists and companies beyond Neuralink.

It also raises questions about the safety of implanted devices, clinical evidence, privacy and the long-term effects of connecting neural signals to computer systems.

7. The Boring Company: Tackling traffic underground

Musk founded The Boring Company to develop tunnels and underground transport systems as an alternative way to move people through congested cities.

The company develops tunnel-boring technology and operates transport projects such as the Vegas Loop, which uses tunnels and vehicles to move passengers between destinations.

The idea is to create additional transport routes underground rather than relying entirely on surface roads.

8. xAI and Grok: Artificial intelligence

Musk founded xAI in 2023 to develop artificial intelligence systems. One of its products is Grok, an AI assistant associated with his social media platform, X.

The venture places Musk in competition with other companies developing AI models and chatbots for answering questions, generating content, analysing information and assisting with tasks.

Unlike Zip2, Tesla or SpaceX, xAI is not primarily about transport or physical infrastructure. It is focused on developing software and AI systems.

9. The new Tesla Roadster: Musk’s flying-car ambition

The redesigned Tesla Roadster, unveiled on October 15, 2026, is the latest example of Musk’s interest in pushing vehicle technology beyond conventional limits.

According to Reuters, the demonstration featured a car equipped with rocket-style thrusters developed with SpaceX.

The vehicle lifted into the air, turned during the demonstration and landed. Tesla said it intended to begin production in 2028.

Musk described the unveiling as evidence that the future includes flying cars. But the demonstration showed short airborne manoeuvres, not sustained flight over long distances.

Musk’s ventures span online maps, digital payments, electric vehicles, rockets, satellite communications, brain-computer interfaces, underground transport and artificial intelligence.

Some of the technologies associated with him were developed by companies and research communities that existed before his involvement. Others have been advanced by engineering teams at companies he founded, co-founded or leads.