Toyota and the dream of hover cars: 90 Seconds on The Verge

Toyota confirms it's been investigating cars that hover above the ground. Could this become the car of the future?

Hosted by Nathan Cykiert. Written by Ross Miller and Nathan Cykiert. Video Production by John Lagomarsino. Special thanks to Phil Robibero.

[PotentialThall]

1:28 one frame of mysterious horse man! The verge Ghost!

[MeisterYodarkus]

Reducing friction by hovering does make sense. But doesn't the hovering consume more energy than friction?

[APVHD]

Can't wait for the Self Driving Hover Car!

[mihalcutz]

what about when you want to break? You have some speed, an obstacle appears in front of you, with so little friction over the ground, how do you break in time?

[daniallegacy]

0:47 - I doubt that. Got the beast floating in my garage, safely from the government. ;)

[UkiMalefu]

That friction on the tires is great for taking turns and stopping. Just saying.

[frankholguin]

honestly I'm tired of companies and people talking about car and planes of the future. Either release them now or shut up. Even the smartest of people like to talk shit and not follow through. Do something.

[rrcjr]

Where in the world is the vergecast guys

[dtpett]

Who saw the horse for a split second at the end?? haha

[america]

So how will the car be propelled if it did hover?

[halosaprtan]

That thumbnail is the new toyota supra...wtf....

[FoxxelPobieski]

Did anyone notice the guy wearing the horse mask at the end?

[supersonic]

This shouldn't be something that is just 'investigated', this is the future. In fact, forget floating, they should utilize new forms of propulsion tech like the fusion drive that fixes your efficiency, and you're rendered in complete flight. You can say screw rush hour, just fly thousands of feet off the ground going over traffic, with technology allowing you to reach a destination at supersonic speeds. How is that for your future!? 

[JamesRoyceDawson]

This isn't really news. Until they say what it is they've been researching and hot far along they are, this is essentially meaningless we've been trying to get hover cars for decades, but all traditional methods of hovering are either inefficient or impossible to control well. I mean, there is some more sci-fi stuff like ionising air below and above an object to make it naturally float, but that would take a battery the size of the moon to power it for normal sized vehicles. Unless Toyotas discovered a whole new field of physics, I wouldn't hold your breath.

[lordluke]

They are getting very outro creative with these outro's:-\

[csabarikk]

Well have you seen top gear's hovervan... ? Just sayin :D