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

cpsc.gov

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

#251

Post by mint2 »

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…

I don’t understand this aspect, just because it’s possible doesn’t mean one should.

And in your case it’s clear you don’t think it’s a good idea but seem to say you do it anyway, why do you do it?

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

#252

Post by wjamesg »

alden5 wrote: post #3

onewheels suffer from a problem known as nosediving in which the board shuts off when it can't supply enough power to support the rider, as the board is self balancing this is a problem intrinsic to the board's form factor. The board works in a similar fashion to balancing something like an umbrella on your hand, as the rider leans forward it creates an imbalance that requires the board to accelerate in order to keep…

I have a OneWheel and this is an excellent summary

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

#253

Post by clolege »

Cheswick32 wrote: post #210
zamalek wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am absolutely no fan of Future Motion, and I ditched my OneWheel in protest. This isn't entirely a product flaw and comes down to physics: the board pushes you back (by lifting the front) to indicate that you are exceeding it's capacity to balance (all balancing products have a limit, with no exceptions). It will also push back when the battery is low. Either way, ignoring pushback is how people "suddenly have the…

What would you recommend as an alternative?

roller skates!

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

#254

Post by wjamesg »

krackers wrote: post #217
taylorlapeyre wrote: post #17

The physics of Onewheels are actually super interesting, and Future Motion published an extremely well-made video recently which explains the issue that the CPSC is referring to. It goes into detail about why "nosedives" happen, and how to prevent them. Really interesting stuff! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGn7iPN07XI

That's pretty impressive, do you know if this was produced by the company itself or just a licensed reupload of a video by someone else?

Looks like the company itself

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

#255

Post by Dylan16807 »

1attice wrote: post #237
Dylan16807 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Goodness, no! There is no such thing as 'inherence' when discussing safety, that's a category mistake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_mistake Keep in mind I was responding to someone implying that "don't be an idiot" is all you need, which is pretty similar in bad reasoning. I wanted to know why that particular person objected to 25mph. > The one factor that is really counterintuitive for me is weight. We le…

All excellent points, but I think there's something like 2-5x as much tire surface area in contact with the road, and something like a x10 difference in weight, but I'm quite pointedly not googling either of these hand-wavey claims. Suffice to say, you're quite right, and I don't have all the answers. And I suspect very strongly that regulators are similarly answer-tare. Which is why, for now, it's a great idea to pu…

> All excellent points, but I think there's something like 2-5x as much tire surface area in contact with the road, and something like a x10 difference in weight, but I'm quite pointedly not googling either of these hand-wavey claims.

When you consider the total weight with the rider, the difference in weight might only be 3x.

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

#256

Post by Supermancho »

Zak wrote: post #94
latchkey wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there a bug with onewheels that are causing this injury/death? Yes. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=onewheel+injuri... Edit: I should have explained this more. There are whole threads on YT on how these things are super dangerous and causing a lot of injuries. Especially with random lockups. There are videos about the poor construction, lockups, dangerous to self repair, etc. I found them when I sta…

These search results do not appear to describe a flaw in the product. I watched a bit from one of the crash compilations and would describe every crash I saw as rider error. Many of them were attempting stunts, holding cameras while riding, or both. It may be easy to make such errors, but the same could be said of a unicycle, skateboard, BMX bike, or any of many other vehicles generally seen as safe enough for sale t…

Not even 4 deaths a year, I have to say this is still a magnitude safer than swimming or skiing. It's dangerous to some degree, but enough for a recall seems over the top. Just the statement itself seems unusually targeted. First they came for the magnets, now the uniboards?

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

#257

Post by sleepybrett »

alistairSH wrote: post #220
celestialcheese wrote: post #52

Reading this warning, I don't understand why now? Is there a bug with onewheels that are causing this injury/death? Or is it just rider error doing a dangerous activity? Is the CPSC going to start warning against purchasing Rossignol skis or Santa Cruz mountain bikes because their respective activities are dangerous? Participation in action sports and high-speed transportation will result in a higher expected mortali…

Is the CPSC going to start warning against purchasing Rossignol skis or Santa Cruz mountain bikes because their respective activities are dangerous? Skis balance just fine without power. A skier will slow gracefully due to friction. Likewise, mountain bikes don’t fall over when power (leg or EV) is removed. They coast to a stop. A rider can dangle their feet to slow and balance. A One-Wheel/electric unicycle doesn’t…

They sell accessories for the onewheel that puts little wheels on the front and the back, they don't really work reportedly. Maybe down to the thing I can't stand about escooters ... the wheel diameter is just too small and too dense/inflexible. If a decent sized chunk of gravel is going to cause your wheel to just stop rolling .. well that's not great.

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

#258

Post by mint2 »

ars wrote: post #35
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…

I was using an e-bike on a road with some ripples (I guess they messed up during paving). I was thrown off of the bike, and my helmet prevented any serious injury. I wasn't even going very fast. The only solution to that (and the potholes) is larger wheels.

Did you bike much before? My impression of road biking and really any biking is that one eye has to be constantly glued to the road surface while the other eye watches for non-surface obstacles

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

#259

Post by frankus »

bombcar wrote: post #26
s17n wrote: post #15

I'd be curious to know how many onewheels have been sold - my guess is that 4 deaths represents a very high risk of death relative to eg snowboarding, but without a denominator, there's no way to know.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/50-million-miles-on... and https://www.imarcgroup.com/one-wheel-electric-scooter-market might be able to get a rough number.

It looks like most death rates for transportation products are measured in deaths per 100 million passenger miles. So 8 deaths seems like a reasonable estimate.

By comparison, cars are about 1.5 deaths, and motorcycles are 25-30.

For the car number, I'm willing to bet that OneWheel riders skew younger and male-er than the general driving population. I'd bet the risk difference mostly disappears if you're comparing similar demographics.

For the motorcycle number, keep in mind that you can't legally ride a motorcycle without a license and some training and/or non-trivial testing. And most riders wear much more extensive PPE than the average OneWheel rider. And they're still at something like 300–400% of the risk.

I think it kind of comes down to whether you think of a OneWheel as a toy, a recreational product, or a form of transportation. It's ridiculously unsafe compared with, say, a boardgame, and probably on par with recreational products like skateboards and jet skis, and somewhere in the middle between driving a car and riding a motorcycle for transportation.

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

#260

Post by sleepybrett »

strstr wrote: post #239
Cheswick32 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you recommend as an alternative?

Something with two wheels and a handlebar (bike/scooter).

imo the scooters while more portable and cheaper.. at least the examples i have access too.. lime/bird etc. have a problem due to hard low diameter wheels. They can get hung up on random gravel or small sidewalk 'cliffs' leading to potential over the handlebars ejection.

I went with an ebike for my neighborhood 'runner' (i don't currently commute).

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