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Transportation Technology

Lexus Creates a Hoverboard 102

Posted by samzenpus from the marty-mcfly-approved dept.
walterbyrd writes: Lexus has built a functional prototype of a hoverboard that hovers several centimeters off the ground. The "Slide" is for demonstration purposes only and works through magnetic levitation created by superconductors, a spokesperson says. USA Today reports: "As cool as that sounds, there are some major limitations. Since it operates magnetically, it only can hover over a steel surface. And it also only works as long as the liquid nitrogen holds out."
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Lexus Creates a Hoverboard More

Lexus Creates a Hoverboard

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  • So like every other prototype "hoverboard", then (Score:3, Insightful)

    by NotInfinitumLabs ( 1150639 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2015 @10:12PM (#49982563)
    Not very impressive.

    • Re:So like every other prototype "hoverboard", the (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2015 @10:21PM (#49982611) Homepage

      Maglev with superconductors and liquid nitrogen is not very impressive?

      Sorry, I disagree.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Bruce Perens ( 3872 )

        Well, I did that once with a bottle of liquid nitrogen from Airco and a superconductor I bought from Edmund Scientific. This was before there was a Slashdot. So, no, not impressive.

        • This was before there was a Slashdot

          Jeesh... so there was no way to brag about it at the time? Inconceivable!
          Better late than never, hey?

        • Well, TFA is really thin on details ... so either it's just puffery of something which is considered routine, or there's more to it than we think and they've actually done something new.

          I know the actual levitation bit has been around a while, but it doesn't seem like Lexus/Toyota is going to make an announcement without it actually being some form of advance.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dbIII ( 701233 )
        In the 1990s, yes, very cool. Now it's just a reminder that a couple of dozen students back then could have attached the BiSiCuYt superconductor discs that they made in a practical subject onto a bit of wood and have them all levitate at once instead of individually. It would have been more impressive at University open days than the little 25mm discs we were using, but they were impressive enough and people could understand that if you had a lot of the things you could levitate more mass.

      • Exactly. Now we just need to get the hardware right. That's a material science/engineering problem. Give it 50-100 years. It's a prototype.

      • Maglev with superconductors and liquid nitrogen is not very impressive?

        Sorry, I disagree.

        Not for a skateboard. I'd rather have a skateboard with wheels that could go on any surface than a hoverboard that required a steel surface. Of course, it would make a hell of a monorail.....

    • no power, still doesn't work over water. lame.

      • Since i find all those "hoverboards" lame, a hovercraft (i.e., working over water): the (Russian) Zubr [wikipedia.org] - for example, as used by the Greek Marines [youtube.com] (we bought most of the Russian fleet years ago).

        This "hoverboard" prototype works over a metalic base - i can only think of it as a "train", if ever used for something practical.

        • The problem with hovercrafts is that they tend to get full of eels.

          • The problem with hovercrafts is that they tend to get full of eels.

            Hmmm... to be honest i don't understand how that could happen (if you don't mean something else, that i also don't understand...), but: why would that be a problem? Eels are delicious (at least for us Greeks)!

            • What's on the tele then?

              • What's on the tele then?

                One guy writes about "eels", you write about a "tele" (you mean the Greek word?)... i don't understand anything!
                Can some "barbarian" fellow Slashdoter explain what a Greek like me is missing about the meaning of those "cryptic words"?

                • Maybe you need a Slashdot License. They come from the Ministry of Housinge.

                  • Maybe you need a Slashdot License. They come from the Ministry of Housinge.

                    I beg you, let's stop it now Sir, we may accidentally write the world's funniest joke... and you know how dangerous that is!

                • Drop your panties, Sir William. I cannot wait until lunchtime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

                  • Drop your panties, Sir William. I cannot wait until lunchtime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

                    O.K., dude, thanks, now i get it, sorry about that, i am using a flawed English to Greek dictionary where "The problem with hovercrafts is that they tend to get full of eels" is translated as "Eureka" [youtube.com]

                    • Re:Speaking of which... (Score:4, Insightful)

                      by Sardaukar86 ( 850333 ) <{cam} {at} {todaystlc.com}> on Thursday June 25, 2015 @07:14AM (#49984027) Homepage

                      This is just too beautiful, you're like two warships warily circling one another in the dark, unable to pinpoint each other's location.

                      Unfortunately our poster has you at a disadvantage; perhaps this [wikipedia.org] may be of assistance. I'd like to say "Ironically, it was Monty Python all along," but I'm not sure that's a good example of irony but if it actually was then I'm even less sure I'd get away with it. :-)

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by Trogre ( 513942 )

                      My Dad was a Russian all night.

                      Then again he was a firefighter in a quite large metropolitan area.

                    • This is just too beautiful, you're like two warships warily circling one another in the dark, unable to pinpoint each other's location.

                      Unfortunately our poster has you at a disadvantage; perhaps this [wikipedia.org] may be of assistance. I'd like to say "Ironically, it was Monty Python all along," but I'm not sure that's a good example of irony but if it actually was then I'm even less sure I'd get away with it. :-)

                      No one expects the Monty Python!!! Our chief weapon is surprise!!!

                    • The irony is that some fellow Slashdoters complain all the time because i keep mention that i am Greek... all the time!

                      I should hope that you are Greek all the time. It would be very strange to be Greek in the morning, but Italian in the afternoon, and Russian all night.

                      Not at all. Let's call that situation Gretalissian. From the point of view of a native Gretalissian, it must be very strange to be Gretalissian in the morning, Italigressian in the afternoon, and Russitaligreek all night. (figure out the definitions of the other two yourself). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

          • I've had it with these motherfucking eels on this motherfucking hovercraft [iki.fi]!
      • You bojo! It doesn't work on water, unless you've got power!

    • Not exactly "So like every other prototype "hoverboard", then"

      This one uses magnetic levitation. (Thus works only over a steel surface).

      The one from the kickstarter project [kickstarter.com] uses magnetic induction (Thus works over any conducting surface).

      Get a bunch of engineers, split them into groups, and pack each group in a different room.
      Ask them something awesome like an hoverboard, and they'll come out with probably a dozen of different solutions, each with its own advantage and short-comings. Including levitation so

  • The Year of the Lexus Hoverboard!

    Yeah, of course, not a real, practical hoverboard, but a pretty cool gimmick nonetheless.

  • 'A steel surface' - bullshit.
    A closely packed array of magnets - maybe. (magnetised steel is not enough).
    Aluminium - again sort-of-plausible at high speeds.
    But - not steel.

  • It's getting closer (Score:5, Funny)

    by jader3rd ( 2222716 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2015 @10:46PM (#49982733)
    October 21st is getting closer.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Not a steel surface (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Steel surfaces are a very poor choice because they are ferromagnetic - ie attractive magnetism, which is the last thing you want when you are trying to hover above it.

    What you really need is repulsive magnetism (diamagnetic) behaviour, which needs graphite (very weak), superconductors (perfect diamagnetism) or very good conductors like copper, silver, gold, or most probably relatively cheap aluminium in which eddy currents can be induced by a changing magnetic field to mimic strong diamagnetism via Lens's l

    • Some steel. Not all of them. That's why the refrigerator magnet doesn't stick to that silver door.

      A field strong enough to work on water would kill you first.

    • Superconductors just exclude magnetic flux. I am not getting how it matters what produces the magnetic flux - be it ferromagnetic or electromagnetic. My only Meissner effect demo used a permanent magnet.

  • US Military to Develop Star Wars Style Hoverbikes With British Company [slashdot.org] is an earlier headline. Now it's Lexus creating a hoverboard.

    They should combine their efforts but then the USA military will only be able to use those bikes in wars on planets or at least roads made of metal. Maybe the first sign of USA planning an attack will be USA offering a country to pave their roads with sheet metal.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TheCarp ( 96830 )

      Headlines like that should read "British Company convinces Pentagon to 'Make it Rain'"

      Its almost better if the project has no hope of working, that way there is no way anyone is ever going to try and hold you to a production schedule.

      They make it rain, you fail miserably, mission accomplished!

  • Before someone makes a working hoverboard, we will first hear about the principle that makes it possible. Because one that's practical is almost guaranteed to get someone a Nobel Prize. And certainly Lexus would go for that if they could.

    No new principles lately. There is an existing principle of magnetic repulsion that would work only in an extreme condition. One requiring really special stuff buried in the street, and probably including liquid nitrogen to keep it working for even a short time and a few fe

    • You can do it without superconductors too, by either having the board generate a very powerful high-frequency alternating field or having it spin around some permanent magnets very quickly, then placing it over a simple conductive surface. That works. It's still not very practical though, as the power requirements are just too great for such a size-critical platform. You get a bulky, heavy board that only runs for minutes before the batteries are exhausted.

      • Multiple-Tesla fields that are changing their orientation rapidly in time aren't particularly healthy to be around. Induced currents in your nerves, heating, etc. That MRI field is acceptable because it's DC. That is, if you don't have any ferromagnetic objects on you.

        • The kickstarter-funded hoverboard scam uses rotating magnets instead. It needs a lot less power, but it also generates a lot less force for a given mass because your frequency is limited by the mechanical components: You can only spin things so fast before the bearings melt.

  • Well, its nice to have levitation (although it requires a very specific environment to work), but riding a hoverboard without thrust is as much fun as wind surfing without wind.
    Actually thinking about it, why not equip the rider with a fire extinguisher? It worked for WALL-E!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      Well, its nice to have levitation (although it requires a very specific environment to work), but riding a hoverboard without thrust is as much fun as wind surfing without wind.

      If I recall traditional skateboarding correctly, thrust is provided by pushing one foot backwards against the ground. (whether that is more or less fun that having the board itself provide the thrust depends on what you consider fun)

  • So we need to get Michael J. Fox on this thing, wearing a pair of these: http://www.independent.co.uk/l... [independent.co.uk] (Nike self-lacing trainers)

    We have 4 months to make this happen, people. chop chop!

    (Anyone got a spare DeLorean parked in their garage?!)

  • What about with somebody on it. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Catmeat ( 20653 ) <mtm&sys,uea,ac,uk> on Thursday June 25, 2015 @04:33AM (#49983665)

    Ok, it's a hoverboard - in the narrow sense of it being a board and it hovers.

    One would expect it to to still hover with 80kg of person standing on it. Does it do that? A cursory look shows me no pictures of this.

  • It annoys me how this news is everywhere. Its nothing but hype. There is nothing new about this, its not clever and as a transporting device for people its utterly useless. Can we please move on.

    • Re:Too much hype (Score:5, Insightful)

      by asylumx ( 881307 ) on Thursday June 25, 2015 @07:24AM (#49984061)
      Oh give it a rest. Do you think the first rockets carried satellites into space? Do you think the first airplane flew across the country? New tech doesn't start out as the end-all-be-all, it starts out as a baby step and people with higher aspirations improve upon it until it's something you never thought possible. Your attitude of "It's useless because it doesn't do what I imagined" is just ridiculous.

      • Oh give it a rest. Do you think the first rockets carried satellites into space? Do you think the first airplane flew across the country? New tech doesn't start out as the end-all-be-all, it starts out as a baby step and people with higher aspirations improve upon it until it's something you never thought possible. Your attitude of "It's useless because it doesn't do what I imagined" is just ridiculous.

        It's not useless because "it doesn't do what I imagined", it's useless because it's been done a thousand times by different groups of people since the 90s. The idea and application is not even remotely new. And worse, it's subject to the same limitations that all the other projects are -- they need something metal to hover over.

        I would say as well -- just because it hovers, doesn't mean it has any sort of load-bearing capacity at all. And that's the whole endgame of getting something like this to hover i

    • This hoverboard is full of ills?

  • I'd say no (Score:3)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Thursday June 25, 2015 @07:56AM (#49984163) Journal

    Yes, it's a thing that hovers, but implicit in the term "hoverboard" specifically is a functionality like a skateBOARD or a surfBOARD, ie someone can ride it. None of the videos I've seen shows it supporting any weight but itself (nor even actually moving), which is hardly more impressive than a levitating magnet in a lab.

    Seriously, has the media lost even the slightest trace of criticality to their reporting? We just cheerfully repeat whatever some marketing wonk has told us as fact?

    • Right, just like a chalkBOARD, a chessBOARD, and a leaderBOARD. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take my keyBOARD and go home.

      • Right, I'm sure people would see a chalkboard, chessboard, leaderboard, and keyboard as synonymous in function with a skateboard and a surfboard (and a hoverboard as explicitly presented in the Back to the Future film, which they're aping).

        Yeah, no pedantry there.

  • The superconducting magnets need to be installed in a controlled environment. A "hover park" if you will. Then you can sell some no moving parts basically slick looking steel boards that hover over the surfaces in your hover park, but don't work anywhere else. Then you control the hard moving parts that need constant liquid nitrogen cooling and special magnets, and you only have to worry about one time installations, not mass production.

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