Future Motion, the maker of the Onewheel electric skateboard, is recalling every one of them, including 300,000 Onewheel self-balancing vehicles in the US. Alongside the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the company now seeks to remedy the products after four known death cases — three without a helmet — between 2019 and 2021.

The recall comes a year after Future Motion took issue with the CPSC’s calls for recall and claimed that it tested and found nothing wrong with the Onewheels. At the time, the company issued a press release in objection to the CPSC and called the agency’s statements “unjustified and alarmist.”

Now Future Motion is moving forward with a voluntary recall it chose not to do almost a year earlier. The company is asking owners to stop using their Onewheels until they take appropriate action. For the newer Onewheel GT, Onewheel Pint X, Onewheel Pint, and Onewheel Plus XR, a software update with a new warning system is the remedy.

For early adopters, however, the CPSC and Future Motion are telling owners to stop using and discard the original Onewheel and Onewheel Plus. We asked Onewheel chief evangelist Jack Mudd in an email how many of the original units are affected, but Mudd refused to answer. Mudd also wouldn’t tell us why the company claimed there were no issues and publicly resisted issuing a recall back in 2022.

Mudd did say that the software update for the other models is rolling out worldwide, not just in the US.

Some crashes occurred due to Onewheel skateboards malfunctioning after being pushed to certain limits. The Onewheel GT, Onewheel Pint X, Onewheel Pint, and Onewheel Plus XR will receive a firmware update that will add a new warning “Haptic Buzz” feedback that riders can feel and hear when the vehicle enters an error state, is low on battery, or is nearing its limits and needs to slow down.

“This update is the culmination of months of work with the CPSC,” reads the company’s recall website. Last November, it called the CPSC’s warning about Onewheels “misleading” but stated it would “work to enhance the CPSC’s understanding of self-balancing vehicle technology and seek to collaborate with the agency to enhance rider safety.”

To install the update, owners must connect their Onewheels to the accompanying app and run a firmware update — the process is fully explained in a new video.

For early adopters, however, owners can receive a “pro-rated credit of $100 to the purchase of a new board,” according to Mudd. The credit will only be issued after owners confirm that they have disposed of the old model.

Alongside Future Motion’s blink on the decision to recall Onewheel, the company shared a new video on YouTube highlighting the new Haptic Buzz feature as well as best practices when riding. “We’ve been working closely with the CPSC for over a year in order to develop this new safety feature,” Mudd says in the video. He adds that ignoring pushback or Haptic Buzz “can result in serious injury or death.” It took engineers a while to whip up Haptic Buzz; perhaps it’s something that would not have been ready in a timely fashion after CPSC’s first whistle last year.

  • @herr@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    103
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    All of these words yet not a single one mentions what exactly was faulty about the old software. Did it force-eject drivers after “certain limits” were “exceeded”?

    • @uniqueid198x@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      English
      319 months ago

      The one wheel works by having the rider lean in a direction to go that way. The more you lean, the faster it goes. It balances by pushing the rider in that direction. The trick is when you are leaning and going very fast, but then the board loses power and can’t push you anymore. Then the board nose dives and ejects you. Its the physics of the board, so they can warn you it might happen, but not prevent it.

  • @jordanlund@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    789 months ago

    Requiring disposal to get a measely $100 credit on an $1,400 to $2,200 board seems a little extreme. Full replacement? Yeah, require proof of disposal. $100? Stop using it and turn it into a museum piece or something.

  • @Wahots@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    519 months ago

    More e-waste for the landfill gods. The company should have free shipping back to them to recycle them, bare minimum. Huge waste of lithium.

  • @anlumo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    379 months ago

    Given the company’s history towards repairability, you shouldn’t buy one in the first place. They’re a future doorstop.

  • @Bassman1805@lemmy.world
    cake
    link
    fedilink
    English
    299 months ago

    Super loose definitions of “every single” and “recall” here.

    The oldest models are recalled, yes. Most of the units or on the world just need a software update.

    • @fubo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      35
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      A software update to a vehicle to correct a safety failure is a “recall” in industry terminology.

      The oldest ones are not fixable and they advise junking them!

    • PatFusty
      link
      fedilink
      English
      129 months ago

      The fact people died on these before isnt news… the recall and getting 100 bucks for it is news.

    • @bingbong@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      English
      89 months ago

      Onewheel is a garbage, monopolistic company that spits on consumer rights.

      Means the same thing nowadays anyway

      • @grue@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        69 months ago

        Hey now, let’s be fair. All of the companies are bad, but some of them are even more egregiously bad than others.

  • @umbrella@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    129 months ago

    they had a crappy anti consumer business model anyway.

    sad but not surprised they fucked up further.

  • TwoGems
    link
    fedilink
    English
    109 months ago

    Now Future Motion is moving forward with a voluntary recall it chose not to do almost a year earlier

    Since when could companies just chose when to recall their defective product?

  • P03 Locke
    link
    fedilink
    English
    79 months ago

    Are they going to recall all of the clones that are out there, too? All of these one-wheel “hoverboards” are super dangerous and nobody seems to care.

    It’s not like a skateboard or bike, where propelling the vehicle is all controlled by your body, or easy to find controls on a bike. A electric scooter has controls on the handle. These hoverboards are controlled by merely standing on them, and it’s way too easy to try to stand on it and immediately break a leg or arm as it flies off away from you. You can’t just turn it on and off as you’re trying to stand on it.

    • @Zak@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      79 months ago

      This recall seems to be in response to a software bug that causes it to spontaneously shut down, leading to a crash. Competing products probably don’t have the same bug.

      That’s unrelated to any inherent risk in riding one. There is certainly inherent risk in riding an electric unicycle/skateboard hybrid, which is obvious to most people upon reading the phrase “electric unicycle/skateboard hybrid”.

      • SineSwiper
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        Getting on one of those things before you’re ready is almost as bad as suddenly stopping. My wife broke her arm after trying to show my son how it works, and I know co-workers with similar stories, including head injuries.

        Immediately took the damn thing back. This is just the 2020s version of lawn darts.

      • JohnEdwa
        link
        fedilink
        English
        19 months ago

        They at least claim that the software “bug” they are fixing on the newer boards with the update is only to implement a (better?) warning system as the crashes happen when you push the board too hard and it can’t keep up, causing it to nosedive or shut off completely due to overload. If you ride it sensibly, that shouldn’t be an issue.

        Asking people to scrap the old boards just because they cant get a warning system does kinda sound like there actually is some deeper issue they don’t want to disclose though.

  • AutoTL;DRB
    link
    English
    39 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    At the time, the company issued a press release in objection to the CPSC and called the agency’s statements “unjustified and alarmist.”

    Now Future Motion is moving forward with a voluntary recall it chose not to do almost a year earlier.

    “This update is the culmination of months of work with the CPSC,” reads the company’s recall website.

    For early adopters, however, owners can receive a “pro-rated credit of $100 to the purchase of a new board,” according to Mudd.

    Alongside Future Motion’s blink on the decision to recall Onewheel, the company shared a new video on YouTube highlighting the new Haptic Buzz feature as well as best practices when riding.

    “We’ve been working closely with the CPSC for over a year in order to develop this new safety feature,” Mudd says in the video.


    The original article contains 536 words, the summary contains 135 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!