Just what it sounds like. Imagine being able to magnetically bind your ship to certain constructs (i.e. stations, asteroids) and be able to fly along them at a fixed distance away from the surface. Right now it wouldn't have much use. But in the future when we have sectorwide stations and hopefully massive mazelike asteroids, it would be really fun to be flying along and quickly hit a key to bind yourself to a roid and hover along its surface to race or quickly avoid pursuit. It opens up the possibilites of slingshotting yourself around a roid or doing hairpin turns.
But the coolest part would be that we would be able to have "streets" through the sectors to which you could attach yourself. If a rail was built along the sector (between stations and wormholes and other points of interest) you could find one, bind to it and zip along. This would only be done in the heavily populated "metropolitan" sectors in the game of course, but it would definitely add some flavor to traveling.

There are other possibilites for this technology, but I'm too hungry and sleepy to list them now. Maybe later.

I really like the idea, but the magnets might need to use energy. The ability to slingshot around objects could add a lot, but might be exploited if it required 0 energy.

Perhaps the amount of energy required to run the magnets could be proportional to the amount of work the magnet is doing. If it is simply holding you to the track, not much energy is needed. However, slingshotting around objects and actually changing the course of the ship would require a LOT of energy.

In the end, I suspect this is another idea that the devs might think is cool but simply don't have time to implement.

Physics-wise I don't see how it would require all that much energy. The centrifugal force of running around an object should keep you pretty well bound for very little energy. That was the point of a sligshot, to get a burst of speed without having to drain your battery. The balance comes from the fact that you need an asteroid or a station to do it. It also helps unnecessary issuing off roids if we have big mazelike asteroids. Of course, to add challenge, some types of roids (like ice-roids) will not be bindable. This could come up when you target the roid to scan it.

Hmmm 'streets' would allow you to turn with out letting go of turbo. I agree that it doesn't need to take much energy. It should just be a force that is aplied to your ship so if the 'slingshot' is too tight of a turn you would turn a little bit then be wrenched away from the roid.

When you slingshot around an object to gain speed, energy is required to cause the acceleration. In our universe, that energy often comes from the gravitational potential energy of a large body (such as the moon, sun or another planet). However, these roids and stations do not have enough mass to provide that magnitude of gravitational force. For that reason, the energy that causes your ship to accelerate must come from the 'connection' between the roid and the ship: the magnet.

Centrifugal force is an illusionary force that is often used to teach physics, but almost always ends up confusing everyone and giving them a false understanding of physics. It does not actually exist.

"Centrifugal force is an illusionary force that is often used to teach physics, but almost always ends up confusing everyone and giving them a false understanding of physics. It does not actually exist."
-Are you sure? I was under the impression that centripetal motion was illusory. The one that pushes out is the fake one, the one that pushes in the the real one. We may just be dealing with missunderstood terminology here though.

And I agree with Eldrad.