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CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

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Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#161

Post by watwut »

0_____0 wrote: post #70
deeblering4 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. If you've never been able to cruise on a skateboard, you might not realize how much damage an unexpected pebble or sidewalk crack will do. Riding is a constant balance of scanning the pavement for inconsistencies and making corrections to mitigate them. I don't know if that's even possible at 20+ mph.

Your latter point is why I'm not really sold on electric longboards. Your control authority on a longboard is pretty low, and you need a lot of control authority to react to surprise obstacles/maintain stability after encountering one. Sure, DH longboarders exceed 25mph regularly, but they ride in semi-controlled environments (scout the descent for gravel etc before hitting it) and are exceptionally skilled. Putting…

Electronic skateboards have bigger wheels then skateboard-cruiser which has bugger wheels then skateboard.

Meaning the danger of pebbles is also much different.

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#162

Post by galoisscobi »

One time I ran into someone who ran a consulting firm in the Bay Area at a meet up who told me that Onewheel had raised capital but had horrendous engineering when they came to this consultant. The consultants turned it into a product that could be sold.

I don’t know how true the story is, but whenever Onewheel comes up, I revisit that conversation, wondering if what that consultant said was true.

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#163

Post by 1attice »

FpUser wrote: post #13
1attice wrote: post #8

With thunderstorms, you count seconds 'twixt bolt and boom. With the current golden age of electrified last-mile transport, we're seeing the gap between innovation and regulation opening up wide -- now several years. Real-world impact: I routinely get up to speeds on my e-bike that are, quite simply, dangerous. It's not that I never hit 25 miles an hour on my old road bike, it's that I spend so much more time hanging…

>"heartily recommend that other early adopters think about voluntarily seeking out additional training" Alternatively one can stop being an idiot and ride at safe speed. I bet that "additional training" would require at least this kind of sanity

Think of "idiocy" as the lack of intelligence, rather than a separate entity of its own, similarly to how high-school physics (and therefore, contemporary common sense!) understands cold as the absence of heat.

This means that you can get rid of idiocy by adding intelligence to a system, in the same way that you can warm up a room with a space heater.

But how do you build up intelligence? Put it this way. Your onboard wetware neural network needs to iterate on e.g. pulling out of a slide, and a bunch of other stuff that you won't know how to do unless someone trains you. No iteration means no gradient, and no gradient means 'no smart'.

So if you want to defeat idiocy, you need training. Now, you can train you, but of course, you'll never know if the training was complete.

Thus the obvious antidote to e-vehicle idiocy-at-scale[1] is, yes, formal lessons and deliberate practice. Just like driving. Just like piano.

[1] a friend from grad school who is Korean told me that there's a word in Korean that literally means "road stupid" and this is the only fact I know about Korean and I love it. So many people are road stupid! I'm one of them! I'm trying to improve!

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#164

Post by antihero »

eagleinparadise wrote: post #113
0_____0 wrote: post #23

One issue I've noticed with these new forms of electric wheeled transport (longboard, transverse and longitudinal one-wheelers) is that the people riding them often don't come from a sports background. They aren't "safe" devices exactly - it takes skill to pilot them, and when things inevitably go awry, it takes good reflexes to avoid damage. Novices to action sports often throw their arms out to catch themselves whe…

My partner was hospitalized for nearly a week and had to have facial reconstructive surgery and nearly lost all her teeth after she got hit by someone on a scooter going 25mph while we were walking Be careful out there if you combine speed + unprotected mode of transportation

I for one think the future where we all walk around in cyberpunk body armour to protect ourselves from wayward idiots on powered transportation they are unable to control would be kind of sick

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#165

Post by antihero »

0_____0 wrote: post #70
deeblering4 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. If you've never been able to cruise on a skateboard, you might not realize how much damage an unexpected pebble or sidewalk crack will do. Riding is a constant balance of scanning the pavement for inconsistencies and making corrections to mitigate them. I don't know if that's even possible at 20+ mph.

Your latter point is why I'm not really sold on electric longboards. Your control authority on a longboard is pretty low, and you need a lot of control authority to react to surprise obstacles/maintain stability after encountering one. Sure, DH longboarders exceed 25mph regularly, but they ride in semi-controlled environments (scout the descent for gravel etc before hitting it) and are exceptionally skilled. Putting…

Could they make the wheels larger to fix this?

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#166

Post by yonaguska »

moooo99 wrote: post #123
0_____0 wrote: post #23

One issue I've noticed with these new forms of electric wheeled transport (longboard, transverse and longitudinal one-wheelers) is that the people riding them often don't come from a sports background. They aren't "safe" devices exactly - it takes skill to pilot them, and when things inevitably go awry, it takes good reflexes to avoid damage. Novices to action sports often throw their arms out to catch themselves whe…

This is ignored so often, it is scary. I have been longboarding pretty frequently and extensively up until 2 years ago. I've had my fair share of crashes and plenty of scars to serve as a reminder, but generally I always was a pretty safe and relatively skilled rider. But I also had multiple fun but stupidly risky experiences on my longboard, but no experiences comes close to the fear I felt when joining my friend on…

I see a lot of people with no business in traffic commuting on bikes too. Especially with the advent of divvy or whatever your local equivalent is. Usually people with their own bikes are more than capable.

For a fun observation, go to your local Harley Davidson and watch people that haven't ridden a bicycle in 20 plus years try and learn how to ride a motorcycle, with the expectation that they'll be ready to take their licensing test in 2 days. And many of them won't even bother with that...or they'll take the test on a scooter instead of a motorcycle with gears.

The test is not hard either. Nothing like what our European counterparts have to go through.

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#167

Post by [deleted] »

karpierz wrote: post #159
butterguns wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know how to fall (intellectually). How do I translate that into the real world? I took a nasty fall on my MTB this summer, broke my shoulder. Everything was instinctual and a blur. Can we somehow retrain our innate responses?

As with every other skill, practice. Judo and skiing taught me how to fall. It's easier if you start young because you have less distance to fall.

[deleted]

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#168

Post by heleninboodler »

opwieurposiu wrote: post #53

One issue with the skateboard style of e-wheel is that your feet are perpendicular to the direction of motion. This means when the wheel quits or you hit a big bump you will have to turn 90deg before you can run. The unicycle style where your feet are parallel to the direction of travel is much easier to "run-out" if the motor quits. The unicycle style also allows a larger wheel and larger batteries. I think reason t…

> I think reason the unicycle configuration is less popular is that it does not look as cool as the skateboard style.

The fact that it may look "cooler" is entirely beside the point. A sideways stance is much more stable forward-to-back. This is why we ride surfboards and skateboards sideways, and why if you're standing in a boat whose nose is crashing up and down through waves, you'll tend to turn sideways for stability. Same goes for if you're standing on a crowded bus and don't have much to hold onto: sideways is better. The toes-forward stance feels very unstable in the face of an unexpected slowdown or bump because your only way to counteract it is to start leaning back in advance, whereas when sideways, you can counter a lot of forward-to-back jolts with a wide stance.

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#169

Post by Calamityjanitor »

izzydata wrote: post #9

Do segways have a similar problem or is the vehicle large enough that it can always counter balance your weight?

Yes, they were recalled because of it.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/injury-risk-prompts-...

Re: CPSC calls for full recall of all Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards

#170

Post by sometimeshuman »

fpgaminer wrote: post #137
0_____0 wrote: post #23

One issue I've noticed with these new forms of electric wheeled transport (longboard, transverse and longitudinal one-wheelers) is that the people riding them often don't come from a sports background. They aren't "safe" devices exactly - it takes skill to pilot them, and when things inevitably go awry, it takes good reflexes to avoid damage. Novices to action sports often throw their arms out to catch themselves whe…

I'm not sure this logic applies to the OneWheel. They aren't self balancing like a SegWay where the average person can get on and be fine zooming around within a couple minutes. The OneWheel only does about half the balancing work, you have to do the rest, and learning to ride one can take days or longer. During that time you'll fall many, many times. It also doesn't take much to eat shit on it even as a skilled ride…

"The OneWheel only does about half the balancing work" -- It's more like 99% of the work and I defy anyone to stay balanced and keep riding free wheel if the power suddenly cuts out. The OneWheel's balancing algorithm is so good it gives the the illusion of competence after less than an hour.
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