Elon Musk Unveils a ‘Flying Car’ Just in Time to Distract From Scathing New Documentary

🎬 Elon to Scathing Doc: Hey, Look at This Flying Car!

1. Nearly a decade ago, Elon Musk promised that the next version of the Tesla Roadster would be a flying car, and on Oct. 16, amazingly, he delivered on that promise, sort of. Musk and two of his engineers took to the Tesla stage this week to unveil the new Roadster, which looks like a squashed version of the Cybertruck mixed with a Lamborghini. But the design was just the icing, the main course of the event was Musk showing off how the vehicle uses air thrusters to achieve brief moments of elevation from the road. So it doesn’t exactly fly as the Spinner cars did in the classic sci-fi film Blade Runner, but the Tesla demo was close enough to elicit cheers from the audience and much of social media. Even his bitter rival, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, congratulated Musk on the launch.

As usual, the product reveal comes with major caveats: Production won’t start until 2028, the starting price is $50,000, the Thrust (non-flying) version is $250,000, and the Rocket version (the one that mimics flight) is available through invitation only (which effectively means it’s not really for sale). So in the end, the flying car stunt was just that, a stunt, and not Musk ushering in a new era of flying cars. Based on the delays and price changes following the original Cybertruck reveal, the final Roadster prices and release dates may change dramatically. Nevertheless, Musk’s P.T. Barnum act will likely help distract from the release of the scathing new Alex Gibney-directed Muskdocumentary, which features Musk’s ex-wife Justine Musk, and latest baby-mama (number 4?), former right-wing commentator Ashley St. Clair.

Flying Under the Radar: Amid the hubbub around the Musk documentary and the new Tesla car, another development occurred this week that could compel Musk to keep digging into his bag of magic tricks. Outerlight Entertainment (formerly First Look Media) just acquired Bleecker Street Media, the company distributing the Muskdocumentary. Outerlight’s recent name change might distract some from realizing that the company was founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, a fellow billionaire whom some consider partially responsible for Musk’s early rise after eBay acquired PayPalfrom Musk (and Peter Thiel) for $1.5 billion in 2002.

Since then, Omidyar has distinguished himself as distinctly to the left of Musk’s political views, funding numerous efforts and organizations that are generally considered left-leaning. By acquiring Bleecker Street Media, Omidyar effectively ensures that documentaries like Musk continue to get made, despite the encroaching influence of Big Tech on Hollywood (which almost killed the Altman-critical film Artificial).

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🦜Clarkson Loves Robot Birds, AI Singers Not So Much

2. “I love AI. There are very amazing things with AI that I am obsessed with. I have fun with it just like everybody else does. But when you see AI artists competing on a chart with humans, I have an issue. I think there should be a separate chart.”
—Kelly Clarkson, singer-songwriter, destroyer of Brooklyn toy shops?
*Source: Las Culturistas podcast

🔈 Reading About AI Music in Print Is Totally 2026ing

3. So I’m on the treadmill at my local gym in Manhattan, sweating hard with old-school Aphex Twin blasting in my ears when, out of the corner of my eye, I see what looks like a mirage. A stack of Spin magazines?!? I wondered if I had worked out a little too hard and was experiencing some sort of lightheaded newsstand veteran flashback. And then I remembered that Spin promised back in 2024 that a print version was returning to the world. In real time, I was so perplexed by actually seeing the magazine that I kind of looked around to see if anyone was watching me as I grabbed a free copy, as a thief might as they stash a sugary snack into their pocket just before slipping out of a bodega.

When I got the magazine home, I said, out loud, “Get the fuck out…” as I flipped through its pages. In 2024, I wrote about the niche return of print magazines as the new-old vector of cultural transmission, but seeing it in the form of a music magazine I thought forever dead in physical media was surprisingly disorienting.

The Fall 2026 edition of *Spin*’s print magazine.

Inside the Tree-ternet of Ink Play: Despite being a former music journalist and editor myself, the first thing I looked for in the magazine’s pages was any mention of tech, and I found it in a great article by veteran rock critic Arsenio Orteza titled “AI and Music.” The article explored our evolving relationship with AI-generated music, and made the point (which I often trumpet) that the main issue for many listeners is that they want to be “told” when they’re getting AI-generated music, not lied to. In the same way we sometimes consume chemical concoctions pretending to be a whole food, as long as we’re informed on the package that we’re eating junk, we’ll generally accept a lip-synced performance on stage if we go in knowing it’s on the performance menu. Likewise, I suspect many will accept AI-generated music, but true music lovers at least want to know when they’re consuming the equivalent of sonic Soylent Green.

One passage in the article also reminded me to check in on Paris-based music streaming service Deezer, which just announced a new update to the platform that allows users to avoid hearing any AI-generated music by toggling one button.

I must also admit that before I started reading the article, I went toSpinMagazine.com and tried to read it on the website. Maybe it’s hidden there somewhere, but I couldn’t find it. Perfect! If this was a deliberate strategy, I love it. Making the physical item distinct by including writing that isn’t on the website is exactly the kind of curated scarcity that can enhance the meaning, novelty, and, most importantly, the value of the different format (even if the print articles are merely temporarily time-locked away from the web). And somehow, my old-school magazine editor muscles kicked in—I caught a mistake. The “AI and Music” article was listed as continuing on page 97, but instead continued on page 96. I love it. Yes, this is something I would have freaked out about as a print editor years ago. But now? This simple error of human-crafted editing gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling that no AI-generated perfection has ever delivered.

I still read paper books, but this is the first print magazine article I’ve read in years. It was great. I was forced to turn off my ever-present ambient Internet streams and focus on a short read again. It was glorious. Kind of like slipping into a warm bath. I might start doing this more often…again.

🤖 AI Clapback of the Titans

4. “We don’t know what the chance are that AI will try and take over from us. We’ve never been here before. But very few people think there’s no chance. Some people say 99%. Those are the real alarmists. Some people say 0%. Those are the deniers. Jensen has good reason for saying it’s not dangerous because he wants to sell more Nvidia chips.”
—Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Prize winner and “godfather of AI,” in response to Jensen Huang saying, “All of his [AI] predictions have been wrong.”
*Source: CNN

🎃 Apple’s New Halloween Horror Film for Super Nerds

5. The scariest part about the new immersive horror film Remnants from Apple TV is that only an estimated half a million Apple Vision Pro users will get to see it. Directed by prolific horror auteur Ti West (Widow’s Bay, A24’s Pearl, Tales from the Loop), the 27-minute film is a brilliant, high-quality, and genuinely terrifying exploration into an 1800s tale set in an eldritch village filled with terrified residents who speak in whispers as they tiptoe around the outskirts of the haunted Woldmere Castle. [Spoilers Ahead]

Starring Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody, The Ipcress File) and Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Werwulf, Nosferatu), the film focuses on the fate of Eleanor Thomas, the wife of a bank employee who was suddenly stricken ill after his efforts to settle a debt by securing the assets of a woman thought deceased. Eleanor decides to take her husband’s place in hopes of finishing his work by visiting the castle filled with valuable belongings. What she didn’t know (despite Ineson’s warnings) is that the castle is inhabited by a vengeful witch whose spirit (and body) still haunts its halls.

Behind the scenes of Ti West’s Apple TV film *Remnants*.

Unlike some immersive films I’ve experienced in the past, Remnants is absolutely feature film-level cinema. From the incredible sets, to the costumes, to the sound design and the cinematography, the film feels exactly like a big-budget Hollywood film, but with incredibly new angles and perspectives, aided by the immersive filmmaking approach. Like IMAX and 3D filmmaking, immersive filmmaking presents unique challenges for everyone involved in the production, which is one of the reasons why we don’t see more of them. During one part of the behind-the-scenes clip showing the film’s production process, West can be seen wearing an Apple Vision Pro to visualize the scene while directing Ineson.

In Remnants, West has managed to take his traditional filmmaking expertise and effectively translate it to this emerging format in a way that transforms the typical passive viewer horror movie experience into a near-physical haunted house visit. All just in time for Halloween. If you don’t have a Vision Pro, do your best to visit an Apple Store and ask for a demo. And while you’re there, sneak yourself a look at Remnants (located in the Vision Pro section of the Apple TV app). It will be worth it. ✍︎