All rights reserved.Volkswagen's hover car would work via electromagnetic suspension. Still, after seeing the video VW put together, who wouldnвЂ™t want to take JiaвЂ™s hover car for a spin?ДЇollow Scientific American on Twitter and Visit for the latest in science, health and technology news. These could accommodate more passengers while providing greater coverage than maglev trains confined to specific guideways. Perhaps the solution, then, isnвЂ™t cars propelled along by electromagnetic energy but rather city buses that can make use of this technology.

вЂњIвЂ™m OK with that, but youвЂ™re still going to need a rechargeable battery or some form of energy to power this vehicle, and the initial investment in a maglev infrastructure for the car would be substantial.вЂќ The only vehicles that would benefit from such an infrastructure investment would be the hover cars themselves wheeled vehicles running on combustion engines or batteries would still need well-maintained roads.ДЄs imaginative as the VW hover car is, Holgu n-Veras says, mass transit is still the best option for urban populations in the future as city populations swell and traffic congestion grows. вЂњYou could argue that, because thereвЂ™s less friction, the hover car would be more efficient than fuel-powered vehicles with tires, brakes and other mechanism,вЂќ says Jos Holgu n-Veras, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic University. Of course, for VWвЂ™s hover car to work in practice, it would have to cost less to run than an ordinary car, and experts question whether that is possible in the foreseeable future. To add a bit of realism in one scene, a discarded can in the roadway rolls away from the car as it passes by. The narrator points out a number of the imaginary carвЂ™s features, including a joystick controller, auto-pilot, and a collision-avoidance sensor. In the video, JiaвЂ™s parents take the wheel-shaped hover car out for a spin through Chengdu. Magnets on board and in the track lift the train between eight and 12 millimeters, depending on how much electrical current is used. (Other maglev trains use electromagnetic forces for propulsion without actually lifting the train off the ground.) The Shanghai Maglev Train has been ferrying passengers since 2004 on a 30-kilometer line between Pudong International Airport and the cityвЂ™s outskirts at speeds of up to 430 kilometers per hour.

The imaginary car stays aloft with the aid of magnetic levitation, much the way some maglev trains travel along special rails using electromagnetic suspension. вЂњIt was the ultimate in dreaming because a full-scale version of the car doesnвЂ™t exist.вЂќ вЂњWe put a concept together, including a video depicting how it would function,вЂќ he adds. Jia sent sketches of a levitating car that could be maneuvered easily in a downtown setting, says Simon Loasby, head of design at Volkswagen Group China. Wang Jia, a student and resident of Chengdu in the countryвЂ™s Sichuan province, chose the latter, envisioning a two-person environmentally-friendly hover car.

Participants were able to tinker with designs on a Web site that Volkswagen set up for that purpose, or they could upload their own designs. A year ago, Volkswagen in China launched a marketing campaign called The PeopleвЂ™s Car Project (PCP), which invited Chinese customers to submit ideas for cars of the future.

Vw hover car 2020