Evel Knievel's Estate Demands a Cut After Roadster Jumps Semi

The estate's position is simple: if you are going to jump a canyon, you owe the man who made jumping things a profession. Tesla's new Roadster did not jump a canyon on October 15, 2026. It did something arguably more disrespectful — it made canyon-jumping look easy.

TechCrunch reports that the Roadster used its thrusters to lift itself over five moving Teslas: a Cybercab, a Cybertruck, a Semi, a Model Y, and a Model 3. EV Central calls the maneuver the "kick flip" — the car fired its thrusters, shot into the air, flipped a full 360 degrees over the lineup, and landed on the other side. Musk then raised the stakes, saying Tesla may try to jump the Snake River Canyon, the site of Evel Knievel's famous 1974 attempt.

That attempt deserves a moment of respect, because it went considerably worse. On September 8, 1974, Knievel climbed into the Skycycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket on wheels, and launched toward the far rim of the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. Shortly after leaving the ramp, the craft's parachutes deployed prematurely. Photographs show it did make it across — and then the wind pushed it backward, drifting it down into the canyon, where it landed feet from the river. Knievel survived, which counts as a miracle, since a harness malfunction meant he could not have escaped the vehicle had it hit the water. Knievel never attempted the jump again. In 2016, stuntman Eddie Braun recreated it successfully in a replica, with Knievel's sons involved.

Musk's version of the story replaces the steam rocket with ten cold-gas thrusters, the parachute with attitude control, and the canyon with a parking lot full of the company's own products. The Roadster's Rocket trim is invite-only and not road-legal, which puts it in the same legal category as most of Knievel's career. The difference is that Knievel charged admission and risked his life, while Tesla charges a $250,000 Thrust reservation and risks, at most, a software update.

The estate's demand — a cut of every canyon jump, Semi jump, and gravity-defying stunt — is, in fairness, the kind of thing Knievel himself would have respected: showmanship, leverage, and a healthy disregard for physics. He jumped a canyon in a steam rocket with a faulty parachute. Tesla jumped a Semi in a car with rocket thrusters and a fan that sucks it to the road. The estate is not asking for much. Just royalties, and perhaps an apology for making it look this easy.

The underlying reporting is filed in the Evidence Locker: TechCrunch (Oct 15, 2026); EV Central (Oct 16, 2026); This Day in Automotive History (Sept 8, 2021).