It consists of unpowered, passive magnet arrays attached under a vehicle, and a track guideway with metallic, nonmagnetic inductive coils embedded in its surface. The train rests on auxiliary wheels when it is stopped. Ordinary train motors bring it to a speed approximating a brisk walk. At this point, the magnets and inductive coils repel each other. The train begins to float.
Coils create a magnetic field as the car speeds past.
Obviously you can't levitate a train with just any magnet. Inductrack uses a permanent magnet design known as a Halbach array. These arrays were pioneered by physicist Klaus Halbach for use in particle accelerators. The uniquely efficient arrays of permanent magnet materials concentrate the magnetic field on one face of the array, while nearly canceling it on the opposite side. He points out that at high speeds the Inductrack has up to 10 times the lift force relative to its electromagnetic drag force compared to the lift of a modern jet aircraft wing relative to its aerodynamic drag force.