Only slightly related but does anyone know anything about motors with magnetic bearings? As in, no contact or friction. I'm looking for a hardware project

There are fluid dynamic bearings which were used in VCRs and probably hard drives and definitely laser printer mirror motors - two sets of precise herringbone patterns cut into the ID of a bearing column and a tiny bit of oil that gets entrained between rotor shaft and that bearing column. As the motor speeds up the oil forms pressurized donuts. Only works at speed and generally only useful when there aren't side loads so applications are limited. Rolling element bearings are a quite developed technology and hard to beat in most applications.

I think air bearings exist? Maybe some prior art to consider

Closest I can think of is flywheel "battery" storage tech many of which do have magnetic bearings and also some way to get power in and out of the flywheel so basically a motor. It's not exactly what you're looking for but there's prior art out there.

maglev but those do linear acceleration instead of rotational. seems tricky though for cars with such uneven surfaces.

I wonder if that is even possible since the whole point of the motor is an imbalance of magnetic forces.