The Sad Fate Of The Prototype Lexus With A Bose Suspension

Bose is best known for its high-quality sound equipment, from earbuds to noise-canceling Bose headphones and the prodigious line of SoundLink speakers. The company has dabbled in other areas, though, including a highly advanced seat for semi-truck drivers, itself a byproduct of something else the company once worked on that had nothing to do with sound.

Back in 1980, a Bose research and development group known as Project Sound, headed by founder Amar Bose, began working on a mind-boggling technological advancement called the Magic Carpet car suspension system. While old-school traditional shock absorbers could only react to road conditions after encountering them, and newer “active” systems adjusted in real-time, the Magic Carpet was touted as being truly proactive by sensing the road ahead and adapting to conditions before reaching them. The “magic” was achieved by replacing the car’s springs and dampers with linear electromagnetic motors so each wheel could move independently from the body.

Bose unveiled this tech during a press conference in 2004, using a 1994 Lexus LS400 four-door sedan as a demonstration prototype. No matter what the road (or driver) threw it — undulating roads, hard-stop braking, even jumping over a wooden beam – the vehicle maintained a smooth, perfectly level ride. The Bose system was indeed magical, but after the fanfare died, it was seemingly forgotten like some great Arabian folklore.

The Magic Carpet sailed away

Then, in 2016, the tech website CNET filmed a segment that once again showed off the 2-by-6-beam-jumping Lexus equipped with the Magic Carpet system. The strong linear electromagnetic motors installed in each wheel could move up and down as much as 8.5 inches, all controlled by a large computer housed in the trunk capable of responding and adjusting over 100 times per second.

Ultimately, nothing came of it because the system proved far too heavy and expensive. So, in 2017 Bose sold everything involved with Project Sound — including the patents, software, and all of the vehicles — to ClearMotion, a company trying to build “the world’s first proactive ride system” (per thedrive.com). Bose had installed the Magic Carpet in two LS400s (one white, the other silver) with a third standard (dark grey) model used as the comparison “have not” car, without the high-tech suspension system. And for as long as ClearMotion owned them, they were all kept in storage.

In 2018, automotive-world news sites began reporting that Bose’s awesome Magic Carpet suspension was coming to production. ClearMotion claimed its “digital chassis system” (as it was now being called) would be “the fastest proactive ride system that exists today.” Except the system never materialized. ClearMotion ended up downsizing and decided it no longer needed or wanted the three outdated Lexuses, so it sold them all to an employee — testing engineer Tom McVay.

The Magic Carpet rides again!

McVay said that if he hadn’t bought they cars, they would’ve probably been scrapped. His daily driver is the grey “have not” model without the spellbinding suspension. The silver Lexus equipped with Magic Carpet (seen in early test videos shown at a press conference in 2004) is used as a parts car to keep McVay’s commuter car functioning.

And the white Lexus? In October 2024, the CNET video star showed up as just another car for sale on Facebook Marketplace. With only 53,079 miles on the odometer, McVay listed it at just $2,500 (cash only, no trades) … for a vehicle Bose was rumored to have sunk $100 million into. One caveat: it didn’t come with a battery. It quickly sold to Michael Morgan, who pulled the 1UZ V8 engine and installed it in a 1995 Toyota 4Runner.

Ah, but that’s not where the story ends. ClearMotion is still alive and kicking. Its version of Magic Carpet — called ClearMotion1 — doesn’t use linear electromagnetic motors, instead using the Activalve. These electrohydraulic devices sit at each corner of the vehicle and, using a modified version of the Bose software, provide a proactive chassis controlled by state-of-the-art road-surface-fingerprinting software. It was recently announced that ClearMotion1 is installed in the new electric Nio ET9 (one of the coolest Chinese cars we wish were sold in the U.S.). Additionally, ClearMotion is partnering with Porsche and in talks with other European automakers.