Charles, I'm with you. I find it hard to believe this car can be levitated based on underground minerals. What type of minerals would have the right permeability to allow this car to float in the air as well as propel itself? Just based on fact that underground minerals would need to be availabe for proper car operation makes the concept not practical. I give VW an A+ for good imagination. I'm just not feeling it.
The Hover Car is short in physics but rich in animation. What kind of energy (force) did they use to lift the car so high and balance and still accelerate I must be in the dream land!
Charles Murray; I guess I'm in good company then. The posts I read seemed to take the video at face value as real. When the car 'levitated' I was sure it was fake.
I'm afraid you'll have to count me as one of the non-believers, GlennA. The video refers to it reacting with "minerals" in the ground, which I don't understand. Maglev trains use the concept of the linear stator, and I suppose there could be a linear stator buried beneath the street along the course that it travels. But that, too, seems unlikely to me. Linear stators, like those used on the maglev trains in Germany, cost a ton of money to install. And even if they did use a linear stator, the air gap is still way too big. And what forces are they using to balance it (laterally)? This is really far-fetched, and there's just not enough information here for me to buy it. Count me as a non-believer.
This is great! Thanks for reporting on this. I also remember all those predictions in the 1960s about having flying cars by 2000. Now we just have to figure out traffic control. I hope it's more intelligent than the mess shown in, for example, The Fifth Element.
That makes much more sense, but even with that, it's still somewhat surreal. I hear what you're saying about the cost of laying all that cable infrastructure down. It seems that infrastructure cost goes hand in hand, though, with any of these new alternative technologies. Infrastructure costs for laying some sort of power cable for this concept car, battery charging station infrastructure for pure EV technology, and whatever is required for the autonomous vehicles that Chuck is writing about. Somehow for all this innovation to take place, there has to be monies to fund wholesale infrastructure development--all at a time, when we can't find monies to fund existing infrastructure like bridges and highway systems.
I love the idea of the hover car. I always figured it would come eventually. But what would that mean in managing traffic in the air? There is also the gimmick aspect. Remember those amphibian cars? Cool idea, not particularly practical.
Considering that we were all supposed to have flying cars by 1990, I like the new ideas that bring us closer to just beaming us places! It is time that the design process changes. We are working on better mileage and fancy electronics, but all cars look alike in their class, not like the 50s and 60s where there were defining features.
I would like to see defining features such as the hover car, gyro controlled one or two wheeler, or the ultimate- the flying car. After all, this is the 21st century for heaven's sake!
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