It only makes sense that a company finally produces a functioning hoverboard in 2015, the same year that Marty McFly discovers one in Back to the Future Part II. Would you ever guess that it’d be Lexus, the Toyota-owned luxury car maker, to pull it off? Well, they did it, and you watch the Lexus Hoverboard in action above.
Pretty cool, huh? Dying to look “under the hood?” Let’s. First off, I don’t want to get your hopes up, if I haven’t already. Lexus’ hoverboard was made specifically for its “Amazing in Motion” marketing campaign; it is not being mass-produced and you won’t get the chance to buy–let alone ride–one. With that out of the way, it’s time to expose the magic that makes it work.
Lexus and a crack team of scientists specializing in magnetic levitation technology figured out the impossible using liquid nitrogen and magnets. The puffs of smoke emitting from the natural bamboo board? That’s liquid nitrogen and it’s required to keep the board cool during use. The board houses two cryostats, reservoirs which contain superconducting material kept at -197°C through immersion in liquid nitrogen. The hoverboard’s biggest caveat: it cannot be used anywhere you like. It requires precisely placed magnets beneath it in order to float in the air (and even above water). To shoot this innovative commercial, Lexus constructed a “hoverpark” near Barcelona, Spain. To the layman it would appear to be a standard skatepark, but lying beneath the surface is around 200 meters of magnetic track. When the board is placed above the track and cooled to its operating temperature, “the track’s magnetic flux lines are pinned into place, maintaining the hover height of the board,” explains the car company.
“The magnetic field from the track is effectively ‘frozen’ into the superconductors in the board, maintaining the distance between the board and track – essentially keeping the board in a hover. The force is strong enough that the rider can stand and even jump on the board,” says Dr. Oliver de Hass, one of the scientists who worked on Lexus’ innovation. Click here to learn more about how it was made.
Skateboard Ross McGouran is the featured rider in the astonishing clip. “Everything I knew about skating went out the window,” he said about getting acclimated to the hoverboard. “I’ve spent 20 years skateboarding, but without friction it feels like I’ve had to learn a whole new skill, particularly in the stance and balance you need to ride the hoverboard.” There’s a lot of stumbling going on in the video, but in the few instances where McGouran maintains control, the Lexus Hoverboard wows.
We’re a mere two months out from the October date that Marty visits in BTTF2, and at this rate it’s hard to imagine we’ll all be riding hoverboards from Mattel Lexus anytime soon. Still, we should take solace in the mere fact that companies are attempting and even succeeding at making the tech come alive. Where we’re going, we don’t need roads–we need magnets. Bitch.
