The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is urging consumers to stop using Future Motion’s Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboard. The commission said riders can be thrown from e-skateboards and die from head trauma and other injuries. At least four deaths have been reported between 2019 and 2021, the CPSC said in a Nov. 16 statement.
Other injuries such as traumatic brain injuries, concussions, paralysis, upper body fractures, lower body fractures and ligament damage have also been reported. The CPSC said Future Motion refused to agree to an “acceptable recall” of Onewheel products. These include Onewheel, Onewheel Plus, Onewheel Plus XR, Onewheel Pint, Onewheel Pint X and Onewheel GT.
In response to the CPSC’s warning, Future Motion said in a Nov. 16 press release that e-skateboards are safe when riders follow “common-sense safe riding practices common to all board sports.” The press release said it disagreed with the CPSC’s conclusions.
“Future Motion has evaluated several boards where riders claimed they suddenly stopped, but in no case did we find any underlying technical issues with the boards,” the company said. “All of these boards performed as designed and were tested for many miles with no performance issues.”
Onewheels work by having the rider balance on a board with a single wheel in the center. As the rider leans forward, the speed of the e-skateboard increases. According to Onewheel’s Frequently Asked Questions page, some boards can travel at speeds of 16 to 19 miles per hour. Consumers reported that e-skateboards failed to balance the rider or stopped suddenly while moving, the CPSC said.
Kyle Doerksen, founder of Future Motion, said Thursday that Onewheels do not have technical flaws and that other vehicles, such as ATVs and mountain bikes, have inherent risks.
Doerksen emphasized the importance of wearing a helmet and other safety equipment while operating a Onewheel, and said all four Onewheel deaths involved riders not wearing helmets.
Attorney Aaron Heckaman said he represents the families of the five who died, along with more than 100 riders who suffered serious injuries. He said riders often wore helmets.
“Future Motion is well aware that in one of the incidents, the rider who died was wearing a helmet when his board dived and threw him onto the road,” Heckaman wrote in an email to CNET. As for other cases of serious injuries, he said, “Many of them were wearing helmets and other protective gear.”
If riders try to go too fast on Onewheel, they get a warning encouraging them to slow down, Doerksen said. If a rider “ignores these warnings and fights back,” he said, “they may push the board too hard and end up no longer able to balance.”
“Are Onewheels safe?” The FAQ page section features a video from 2018 about an alert feature known as pushback. The comments below the video show that some users are confused about this feature. Another video about this feature was posted this past weekend, on November 12th, but the comments section is turned off.
Going forward, Future Motion will “work collaboratively” with the CPSC to make technical safety improvements, Doerksen said. “We will work to communicate that this product works as designed and to emphasize the importance of riding safely and wearing appropriate safety equipment,” he said.