Lexus Hoverboard

[ukaskew]

I couldn't find this mentioned anywhere, but, wow...

https://youtu.be/ZwSwZ2Y0Ops

[ukaskew]

It's on 'rails' essentially, the park itself has magnets embedded in the concrete, so you couldn't just go off and 'skate' anywhere on it. It also requires refuelling every 10 minutes.

It's not at all practical, obviously, but still very nicely executed and packaged (and apparently, insanely difficult to control)

[Hoofy]

Seems that too much vertical motion will ground one end hence people falling off it even after getting used to it. I've worked out how Lexus can fix this problem.


Add wheels to the hoverboard.

Here's a prototype:

[TheEnd]

Hoofy said:

Seems that too much vertical motion will ground one end hence people falling off it even after getting used to it. I've worked out how Lexus can fix this problem.


Add wheels to the hoverboard.

Here's a prototype:

That would solve the other problem of not being able to turn either.

[Wadeski]

Now when can we really get cracking??

[Nimby]

Isn't it just a superconducting material in the board, hence the need for liquid nitrogen (so yes, it is "cool"). There are no magnets in the deck - it's just steel plate and the board floats because there is a mutually induced repulsive magnetic force.

They demonstrated a small version of this on QI a year or so ago.

[GnuBee]

Nimby said:

Isn't it just a superconducting material in the board, hence the need for liquid nitrogen (so yes, it is "cool"). There are no magnets in the deck - it's just steel plate and the board floats because there is a mutually induced repulsive magnetic force.

They demonstrated a small version of this on QI a year or so ago.

Looks like it but even so the phrase "Isn't it just a superconducting material" seems somehow wrong or crushing British understatement at it's best. Even if it is "just" a bit of cold air and some kind of mildly clever material it's fiercely cool...

[TheEnd]

I believe they are hinting at it being a superconductor, but there's some suspicious scenes in the vid which hint at it all being CGI.

[Nimby]

Yes probably - it was a bit hard to judge on a phone screen.

[MysteryLemon]

A very cool thing indeed but still not a hoverboard in the sense we saw in Back To The Future. Not really even close

I do think the videos are a little misleading with how they make out the board to be free roaming, like the rider is controlling the path it follows when in reality (as clearly seen in the story video) there is a track under the floor that the board follows. The rider "simply" has to balance on it long enough to complete the circuit.

You know it's cool when your mind tells you it must be CGI when it really isn't.

[kiseca]

Hoofy said:

Seems that too much vertical motion will ground one end hence people falling off it even after getting used to it. I've worked out how Lexus can fix this problem.


Add wheels to the hoverboard.

Here's a prototype:

Haha!