Photo: Screenshots from Toyota Global's Youtube account
When Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown traveled to 2015 to prevent McFly’s future son from ending up in jail, director Robert Zemeckis made us believe science will evolve enough so we could actually ride (or is it drive?) a hoverboard. Well, it’s 2015 but the levitating skateboard is still not here, is it?
There still are some brainiacs that believe it could be, however.
Take California-based startup company dubbed Hendo Hoverboard, who revealed their first working, levitating board. Heck, even Tony Hawk rode it a couple of months ago. It works on the same principle Maglev trains run in Japan and was Arx Pax's creation.
The self-powered board is a levitating platform that has enough power to lift a fully grown adult. Its creator claims the current prototype can easily support 300 pounds (136 kg) and future versions will be able to carry up to 500 pounds (226 kg). Imagine all the possibilities, right?
Now, since the idea was officially unveiled already, it was only a matter of time until somebody else would get in the game. We definitely did not expect this one, but it turns out one of the companies interested in creating a hoverboard seems to be nobody else but Toyota. Well, sort of.
Specially built for Toyota’s Engineering Society (TES) Festival 2014, the levitating skateboard in question is the creation of a group of car guys that were challenged to prove how far their imagination can go. “We wanted to see how close we can get using the technology available to us today,” the engineers explain in the video below.
There’s not a lot on how the device functions, but it would seem the board is lifted using a innovative loose plate that compresses air. Well, however it works we sure hope the Back In The Future movie prediction will prove to be right.
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