Just to get one thing perfectly clear before we continue: to be a hoverboard, one must first and foremost hover. So call these contraptions what you will — electric transport, perpendicular skateboards, birth control, whatever — just not a hoverboard.
That being said, the radical MOOV is pretty dang neat. A collaboration between Mark Cuban and Aerospace Engineer EJ Williams, the MOOV is meant to take an otherwise everyday toy and elevate it to a viable mode of transportation.
More stable than its predecessors courtesy of big, shock-eating wheels suited for hardwood floors and the streets alike, the board also sports a chassis molded from die-cast aluminum, which makes it super lightweight. Since the platform is below the wheelbase center, though, you’ll still get a super smooth ride.
For steering, the MOOV has elevated a step up from traditional footpads: it’s fitted with sensors that monitor a rider’s center of balance, responding and adjusting to help you stay upright. There are also various driving modes — from novice to more dynamic settings — so that a rider can get the hang of things before picking up speed.
Head-to-head with the rest of its class, the radical MOOV looks set to corner the market. But that still makes the rider just a sliver cooler than a mall cop.
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