If you’re a fan of Back To The Future Part II, you know that 2015 is the distant future year when Marty must impersonate his son, acquiring a sports almanac that leads to an alternate, dystopian timeline in the process. You should also be painfully aware that 2015 has so far deprived us of both hoverboards and a Cubs World Series win. Well, one of those things may be about to change: Lexus is now teasing us with a functioning hoverboard, according to the Top Gear website.
Sure, this isn’t the first time we’ve flirted bringing hoverboards back to the present. Mattel made some replicas that were good at hovering zero inches above the ground. Some guy on Kickstarter is offering a hoverboard developer kit, but it requires a “metal substrate” to repel off of, which is not necessarily going to be around when Griff’s gang starts chasing you through Hill Valley. In contrast, the Lexus version appears to be floating on concrete, which makes it much more versatile.
Before you quit your job and cash in your life savings to join a hovergang, though, please take this news in context. Lexus isn’t planning on making a production version of the hoverboard, so your chances of getting your hands on one is nil. And even if you could, there’s no indication that you’ve got POWER, so good luck getting across any bodies of water. The video also conveniently cuts out at the precise moment the rider is about to put his entire body weight onto the hoverboard.
But don’t give up hope. As Lexus Chief Engineer Haruhiko Tanahashi says in the video, “There is no such thing as impossible, it’s just a matter of figuring out how.” So it’s not impossible to mass market these, Lexus just has to figure out how. Since Lexus is currently focused on disproving the impossible, the car manufacturer might also want to figure out flying cars, harnessing cold fusion energy, time travel, helping the Cubs win it all in October, and preventing drivers from texting behind the wheel. That would be great.