We’ve waited with bated breath with teaser trailer after teaser trailer. And it’s time.
The Lexus hoverboard floated in a short scene where it didn’t look quite real. Then it was seen oozing out enigmatic vapor with pro-skater Ross McGouran having a fangasm over the board’s alleged characteristics.
Now the car company has finally revealed its hoverboard with two full minutes of people actually riding on the board and abruptly falling off it too.
Filmed in a skatepark in Barcelona, the video (below) shows McGouran again on the hoverboard. But this time, he’s running the full gamut. Down slopes and along handrails, a Frame Droid Works Octocopter also closely captures the skater in action.
And this hoverboard CAN travel on water. Take that, Back to the Future! Lexus.
“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 in order to ride the hoverboard. It's a whole new experience,” said McGouran in a press statement.
Superconductors made of yttrium barium copper oxide are inlaid into the body of the board. Placed into two reservoirs within, this compound is cooled down to below a chilly –181oC (–294oF) in liquid nitrogen, which is the mysterious gas emanating out of the hoverboard. Once cooled, the superconductors store a magnetic field, generated from the 200 meters of magnetic track built into the skatepark. And so the hoverboard hovers.
Lexus has also released a mini-documentary to accompany the big reveal (below) on assembly of the hoverboard. Looking at the rudimentary “brick in a box” experiment of Day 1 in Texas and racing through the subsequent days to the final form, these bonus behind-the-scenes clips show off the ambitious minds behind the hoverboard and project SLIDE.
The development team called the experiment a “one-off” and it’s probably for the best. After a month of hype and speculation, the final product feels slightly underwhelming, like being promised a ten-course banquet, only to be handed a Big Mac meal.
[H/T: Popular Mechanics]
