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Last year’s battery-powered hoverboard definitely got people’s attention online, with images of Marty McFly dancing in their heads. A guest appearance by Tony Hawk certainly didn’t hurt public awareness either. Still, with a battery life of only seven minutes and the need for special flooring to actually hover, the board wasn’t likely to fill our futuristic dreams.

But then last month Lexus decided to steal some of that public awareness thunder for themselves with a video showing off their hoverboard, which apparently floats thanks to liquid nitrogen cooled superconductors and permanent magnets. But Lexus’s last video didn’t show anyone even riding it! How about this new teaser?

▼ Ummm…nope.

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Sadly, we still don’t get to see anyone hop on the Slide, as it’s unfortunately named, though we do get a nice voiceover by professional skateboarder Ross McGouran. The pro even spends a few seconds interacting with the hoverboard by running his hand underneath it and taking it for a little walk in the park. His weirdly inspiring monologue includes such gems as, “It literally feels like I’m starting all over again from the beginning,” “This has never been done before,” and “I’m forgetting what I’m actually doing. This is actually floating on air.”

▼ But is he really?

As with the last video, Ross doesn’t actually ride the hoverboard anywhere. It’s also hard not to view this as little more than some clever marketing ploy — Back to the Future 2 bamboozled us decades ago and it would hardly be difficult for Lexus to create a fake hoverboard video.

That said, the basic principle of floating via magnets is hardly in the realm of science fiction. After all, that’s literally what maglev trains are, and the Lexus Slide apparently requires a special track to stay in the air, so we’re guessing it’s just a tiny maglev train that uses permanent magnets instead of electric magnets.

Of course, all this is somewhat unfair to Lexus, since they’ve been very upfront about the fact that this won’t be a production model. In fact, all of their Amazing in Motion projects are about what’s possible, not what’s financially profitable. Just take the “Steps” video, released in 2013, for example.

▼ Why? Because 11-foot puppets are awesome!

Our favorite by far, though, has to be the Swarm video, which shows a swarm of drones “dancing” through a city.

With all these projects, you may wonder how Lexus has time to make cars. We’re not sure, but hopefully they’ll forget about those pesky things and focus on what really matters: mass-producing hoverboards!

Sources/images: YouTube (Lexus International)