The Future is Now: Enter the HENDO Hoverboard

Posted by Jess on October 24, 2014

At long last, one of the biggest questions of the 21st century has been answered; that question being: “When the heck do I get my hoverboard?”

The answer comes from a KickStarter campaign for the HENDO hoverboard. If you’ve got $10,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you can have one by this time next year. Wait. Actually, sorry, those all got scooped up – but there’s still a chance to try one yourself!

As with the first version of any product, the HENDO hoverboard has some limitations. Since the board creates a strong magnetic field to “repel” the ground, it can only be used on a surface made of a non-ferrous metals (science-speak for a metals that aren’t attracted to magnets, like copper or aluminum), which means you won’t be able to simply ride one down the street. And according to a review by Engadget, the steering and control has a long way to go before we have the same experience as Marty McFly.

What’s truly remarkable about this campaign happens at the $299 level. For pledging that amount, backers will receive a developer kit containing a hover engine and a special surface to hover on. True, you won’t make a full hoverboard with one engine, but with these kits Hendo Hover invites individuals to tinker with their technology. In doing so, they hope to create an ecosystem of products that use Magntetic Field Architecture (MFA™), extending beyond hoverboards. It’s a pretty ingenious funding strategy: bring developers into your community, have them dream up awesome products, and charge them later to license your technology.

But back to the topic at hand: a real, working hoverboard. Much wow. And even though the $10,000 production models are spoken for, you can still reserve a 5-minute ride by pledging $100 or more. HENDO has succeeded in setting the nerd world alight at the possibility of Back to the Future tech actually debuting in 2015, join the discussion over on the Nerdy Show Forums!

About Jess

She's is just your average cat-herding, world-traveling, tech-loving otaku. She'll brazenly defend her love of Harry Potter and Sailor Moon to any who challenge it, and can usually be found under a stack of unread books and graphic novels.