We got our first look at the Lexus hoverboard in June this year, when it appeared in a teaser video that had us excited but wary. We still remember the brilliant Funny or Die hoax that happened a while back and Lexus’ tech… looked like it could have been faked.
We’ve skipped over the various other teaser reveals from Lexus because we’ve been waiting for this one: A closer look at the tech powering this actual, working hoverboard. And what the tech reveals is that while Lexus have indeed created something extremely impressive, there’s no reason for us to get excited about it.
The hoverboard doesn’t require power at all. That might seem like the ideal situation and in a perfect world it would be but it needs a few other things instead. The first is a specialised park, which you can see being constructed in the video below. The second is the ability to stay very, very cold. As in around -200 degrees, which is the temperature that the superconductors need to function correctly. And even then, you’re restricted to a pre-set track.
The end result? It’s cool to look at and daydream about but this isn’t the hoverboard you’re looking for.
Source: Lexus (YouTube)