Lexus finally shows its Hoverboard in action, but you won’t be able to buy one

TORONTO – Lexus has finally unveiled footage of someone riding its working hoverboard dubbed “Slide” – but, don’t get too excited, you won’t be able to buy one.

The car manufacturer officially unveiled the hoverboard Tuesday, a month after first teasing the device.

The video shows professional skateboarder Ross McGouran testing out the hoverboard in a specially designed skate park – but, if the footage is any indication, hoverboards are a bit harder to master than skateboards.

Slide relies on superconductors and magnets, which work against gravity to lift board and rider above the ground. The “smoke” or steam you see coming out from under the board is liquid nitrogen, which is used to cool the superconductors.

Of course, this means that the hoverboard needs special metal floors to actually work – which means taking it to your neighbourhood skate park is out of the question.

The technology isn’t anything new – multiple other companies have experimented with creating hoverboards with very similar designs, including Hendo, a hoverboard which uses magnetics to float about an inch off the ground. Hendo successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign to build the boards and plans to start shipping them to consumers in October.

As Wired magazine points out, “aside from its healthy dose of style, the Lexus hoverboard isn’t much different from a dozen lab demonstrations that have taken place over the last few decades.”

Slide is the fourth project in Lexus’ ‘Amazing in Motion’ series, which includes projects like a tiny quadrotor drones – dubbed SWARM – made out of 3D-printed materials that use 3D-mapping software and motion-capture camera equipment to move seamlessly around objects and people.

This means Lexus won’t actually be selling the hoverboard to consumers.

In fact, many have pointed out that the hoverboard is merely a clever exercise in branding and marketing.

“After an introduction from Lexus officials, we learned that Lexus had hired an advertising agency to produce an ad featuring the hoverboard — so no, Lexus did not manufacture the hoverboard itself (strike two), and yes, the board was a publicity play (strike three),” read the Verge piece.

“Lexus’ advertising agency got in touch with a group of scientists in Hamburg, Germany who had been working on maglev technology, and had them shift focus onto creating a hoverboard. After months of prototyping and refinement, the hoverboard you see in the commercial was born.”

Sheffer, who was actually able to ride the hoverboard, noted that he was pleasantly surprised by the experience on the board, but wrote, “it certainly wasn’t the hoverboarding experience depicted in Back to the Future.”