Bose, the company that makes decent speakers, invented something astonishing more than 20 years ago: an electromagnetic suspension system for automobiles. The footage of it in action (already curiously dated, thanks to the vintage of the test vehicles and low resolution of the video) is as magical now as it was then: cars just floating over rough terrain and through aggressive turns. Too expensive and complicated to commercialize then, Bose spun off the technology to a company called ClearMotion. Now, two decades on, a Chinese EV company is licensing it for a production car—with Porsche said to be readying it in the west.
Last month, the proactive suspension—which is now owned and further developed by an American company called ClearMotion—finally hit the streets in China in its first use in a production car, the electric Nio ET9. It's just the start of a deal with Nio that will put the suspension in 3 million cars. As Automotive News points out, that kind of scale could really help bring down costs as ClearMotion is getting ready to enter a partnership with Porsche and holding talks with other European automakers. You can see just how impressive it is in the video below.
Here's the original demo:
And here's it is as the NIO ET9 SkyRide:
Previously:
• Review: Bose's Noise-Masking Sleepbuds would be great if my brain would let me enjoy them
• Sonos and Bose speakers can be remotely taken over by hackers
