Everyone Calm Down! Lexus Says They've Made a Hoverboard

We've been burned before, so we collectively need to take this with the tiniest grain of salt possible in this news.

What do we know?

Sometime yesterday Lexus International posted this 40 second video of some dude skate boarding, gives a quote by one of their engineers saying "Nothing is impossible..." then shows a SUPPOSED hoverboard.

Then, that dude lightly puts his foot on it.



Lexus even has a shiny website declaring their impossible success.

On it they claim...

The Lexus Hoverboard uses magnetic levitation to achieve amazing frictionless movement. Liquid nitrogen cooled superconductors and permanent magnets combine to allow Lexus to create the impossible. Wrapped in a design that is uniquely Lexus, the Hoverboard features the iconic Lexus spindle grille signature shape, using materials found in the luxury car brand, from the high tech to the natural bamboo.

We have seen this time and time again. And it's either some elaborate, cynical marketing campaign or some $10,000 nonsense machine that can only glide for four seconds on a surface paved with pelts of endangered animals.

So let's all just calm down.

For one, Engadget has already smashed part of my heart, exposing this thing's limitation:

We got in touch with Lexus, and confirmed that like the other examples we've seen, there is a metal surface underneath the skate park shown here -- it's real, but you won't be riding this thing just anywhere.

See! This thing barely works! Or is a hype campaign!

I'm going to go weep for my imaginary future now.