A Santa Cruz company that manufactures self-balancing, one-wheeled skateboards is recalling 300,000 of its products after dozens of people were injured and four were killed.
Future Motion Inc., which makes the Onewheel skateboards, did not respond to a request for comment.
But in a recall notice on its website, the company says that the skateboards “can stop balancing the rider if the boards’ (speed) limits are exceeded, posing a crash hazard that can result in serious injury or death.”
Future Motion is located at 1201 Shaffer Rd. in Santa Cruz. The devices in question sold from 2014 to 2023 for between $1,050 and $2,200.
“Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled Onewheel electric skateboards,” the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said in a press release.
To help address the problem, the company has added a “haptic buzz” feature–which works with the existing ‘pushback safety feature’–that riders can feel and hear to alert them when the board’s ability to balance might be compromised.
According to the CPSC, Future Motion received dozens of reports over the past year of injuries such as traumatic brain injury, concussion, paralysis, fractures and ligament damage.
The reported deaths resulted from head trauma, although in at least three of those incidents, the rider was not wearing a helmet.
This was not the first time that Future Motion has found itself at the center of a media maelstrom.
In November 2022, the company dismissed as “unjustified and alarmist” a CPSC warning that their products were unsafe and could cause riders to be ejected and injured.
For information on the recall, visit recall.onewheel.com/safety.
