The maker of Onewheel resisted recalls for almost a year.

Every single Onewheel is being recalled after four deaths::Future Motion, along with the CPSC, is recalling 300,000 Onewheel self-balancing skateboards. Four crash deaths were reported, and the company resisted recall last year.

  • Eheran@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    1 year ago

    Yes, seems absurd. 4 death at 300’000 units over years, that is less than 1 per 100’000 per year. Cyclists are at that level - over the while population, not just those driving bikes! I would have expected at least 10x that number. Why are they recalling?

    • bambooEnglish
      15·
      1 year ago

      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.

      Sounds like there is could be legitimate software errors and if you’re trusting the software to respond to stopping for example, and it doesn’t, then that’s a problem. Adding a warning buzz seems like a bandaid but i guess is better than nothing. Regardless of the death count statistics, if there are bugs in the systems people are relying on which impact safety, that’s not something which we should tolerate being ignored so the manufacturers can save money.