從磁懸浮滑板到會飛的汽車 這家創業公司在下一盤很大的棋

Last fall, small startup Arx Pax nearly broke the internet with a Kickstarter campaign that many thought was too good to be true—it was building a real-life hoverboard, straight out of Back to the Future. The ten Hendo boards being offered (for $10,000 each) sold out swiftly, in part thanks to a video of skate legend Tony Hawk zipping across a copper-plated halfpipe, a half-inch off the ground.

去年秋天，小創業公司Arx Pax在Kickstarter上的一次衆籌活動幾乎引爆互聯網，其項目簡直好玩到逆天——它要開發一款像電影《回到未來》裏那樣的，真正的懸浮滑板。更讓愛好者瘋狂的是，滑板界傳奇人物託尼o霍克用它在鍍銅U型場地上，表演了一段懸空半英寸的滑行視頻。就這樣，10塊懸浮滑板以1萬美元一塊的高價被很快搶購一空。

But the hoverboard is just a first step for Arx Pax. According to CEO Greg Henderson, the technology that makes the hoverboard possible—a new kind of magnetic levitation that Arx Pax labels Magnetic Field Architecture—has wide-ranging, transformative implications.

不過對Arx Pax而言，懸浮滑板只是他們邁出的第一步。該公司首席執行官格雷格o亨德森介紹稱，實現懸浮滑板的技術是一種全新的磁懸浮手段，Arx Pax將其稱作“磁場架構”，它將給許多領域帶來革新。

Arx Pax’s system is potentially much less expensive than existing maglev systems, which rely on complex electromagnetic systems in both vehicle and tracks and can cost tens of millions of dollars per mile.

現有的磁懸浮系統需要同時在運行物體和軌道上安裝複雜的電磁波系統，每英里的成本可能高達數千萬美元，而Arx Pax的新系統很有可能要便宜一大截。

Despite its widely acknowledged advantages in safety, speed, and efficiency in transit applications, governments and transit authorities have been extremely slow to adopt maglev due to cost. In a 2012 report, the Federal Transit Administration found that these costs, which it characterized as “intimidating,” were a major barrier to maglev adoption in the U.S.

儘管磁懸浮在運輸中安全、快速、高效的優點得到了廣泛共識，但由於成本問題，政府和交通運輸部門在採用磁懸浮技術上進展極爲緩慢。在2012年的一份報告中，美國聯邦運輸管理局發現，高昂的成本是美國採用磁懸浮技術的主要障礙，他們用了“嚇人”一詞來形容這項花費。

But Arx Pax’s magnetic engine is entirely contained within the object being levitated, and the only required infrastructure is a conductive surface, such as the copper-lined halfpipe used to demo the hoverboard. This means systems of any scale could be laid quickly and cheaply. Even more impressive, the surface can be multi-use—for instance, a roadway consisting of a layer of asphalt over copper could accommodate both maglev and conventional vehicles.

但Arx Pax的磁力引擎完全被安置在懸浮物體中，所需的基礎設施只是一塊能導電的平面，比如在懸浮滑板演示視頻中使用的鍍銅U型場地。這意味着人們能夠以低廉的成本迅速架設各種規格的懸浮系統。更令人佩服的是，這種平面還可以做多種用途。比如說，在鍍銅表面鋪上一層瀝青，這種道路就能同時支持磁懸浮汽車和傳統汽車。

The Arx Pax engine can also generate thrust and directional control magnetically, so it doesn’t need a track for guidance. One of Arx Pax’s prototypes is a scaled-down hover vehicle called the Manta Ray, which zigs and zags as neatly as a remote control car. According to Henderson, this points towards “a new type of vehicle, a hybrid vehicle that can drive conventionally, or can hover . . . [with] all the freedom of a car and all the efficiency of a train.”

Arx Pax開發的系統還自帶引擎，可以利用磁力產生推力，並控制方向，所以它並不需要鋪設特定軌道。該公司開發了一款叫做Manta Ray的微縮版懸浮汽車，它能靈巧地以“之”字形轉彎，就像遙控汽車一樣。亨德森認爲，它可以發展成“一種新型的汽車，採用混合動力，既可以按照常規方式行駛，也可以懸浮行駛，兼具汽車的靈活和火車的高效。”

But this futuristic dream of roads full of flying cars faces some obstacles. Arx Pax’s hover engine is power-hungry, needing 40 watts of energy to levitate one kilogram. According to James Weiler, former VP of engineering for longtime maglev developer Magnemotion, “40 watts per kilogram is a killer in terms of transportation.” By contrast, the M3 maglev system that Magnemotion piloted was able to levitate over 10,000 pounds with a hundred watts.

然而，讓懸浮汽車上路這一充滿未來感的夢想仍面臨不少障礙。Arx Pax的“懸浮引擎”非常耗電，每舉起一公斤的物體都需要40瓦的功率。老牌磁懸浮開發公司Magnemotion的前任工程副總裁詹姆斯o韋勒表示：“每公斤耗費40瓦功率，這在交通運輸領域是致命的缺陷。”相比之下，Magnemotion試驗的M3磁懸浮系統舉起超過1萬磅的重量僅需100瓦功率。

And all of the Arx Pax’s energy has to come from on-board batteries. “Batteries are getting better,” says Weiler, “But you probably need an order of magnitude improvement” for the kind of hybrid levitating car Henderson envisions. The Hendo hoverboard offers a ride time of only 7 minutes.

而且，Arx Pax系統只能從裝載電池中獲取能量。韋勒說：“電池質量的確正變得越來越好，不過可能還需要做出海量改進”才能實現亨德森願景中的那類混合動力磁懸浮汽車。Hendo懸浮滑板也只能維持7分鐘的滑行時間。

The scalability and flexibility of Arx Pax’s technology may be its greatest competitive advantage. Though the company is building the Hendo hoverboard itself, its plan going forward is to primarily license its technology.

但Arx Pax這項技術最大的競爭優勢或許在於其可擴展性和靈活性。儘管公司正在自行生產Hendo懸浮滑板，但他們接下來打算授權其他公司使用這項技術。

“Our goal,” says Henderson, “is to put this technology in the hands of folks to come up with new solutions to problems we don’t even know about.” Arx Pax sold about 700 of its developer kits, The White Box, through its Kickstarter campaign. One such solution that Henderson mentions is hovering carts for clean room applications, where wheels and their moving parts are sources of contamination.

亨德森表示：“我們的目標是——將這項技術交給那些能爲我們不瞭解的問題想出全新解決方案的人。”Arx Pax通過在Kickstarter上的衆籌，售出了約700套名爲The White Box的開發工具。亨德森提到，正開發的一個解決方案是：可用於清潔房間的懸浮推車，它能解決傳統推車上輪子和活動部件都是污染源的問題。

Henderson says that Arx Pax has already entertained buyouts from larger companies, but chooses to remain in control. “We didn’t want to end up on someone’s shelf, bought up or stifled, [with] this technology limited in some way.”

亨德森表示，已經有許多大公司有意收購Arx Pax，不過他們還是決定自己保留公司控制權。“我們不想被擺在某公司的貨架上，被收購或被控制，更不想讓這項技術受到任何人爲的限制。”