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Hundreds of thousands of Onewheel electric skateboards are being recalled after four people died using them since 2019, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Friday.
The self-balancing skateboards, manufactured by the brand Future Motion, have also led to injuries including “traumatic brain injury, concussion, paralysis, upper-body fractures, lower-body fractures and ligament damage,” according to the CPSC.
“The skateboards can stop balancing the rider if the boards’ limits are exceeded, posing a crash hazard that can result in serious injury or death,” the agency said in its announcement.
The four deaths resulted from head trauma, according to the CPSC, which added that in at least three of the incidents the riders weren’t wearing helmets.
People who own the skateboards should immediately stop using them, the CPSC said. Owners of certain models — the Onewheel GT, Onewheel Pint X, Onewheel Pint, or Onewheel+ XR electric skateboards — should download or update the Onewheel app and get the Haptic Buzz alert functionality for their boards, a vibration warning system that lets the rider know when they could be susceptible to a crash, allowing them to lean back and slow down, Onewheel said. Those updates will be available in the coming weeks for eligible boards, according to Onewheel.
The original Onewheel model and Onewheel+ are not eligible for the Haptic Buzz update and shouldn’t be used any further, according to Onewheel, which added owners of those boards can receive a $100 credit towards the purchase of a new one.
The 300,000 skateboards included in the recall were sold online and at independent stores between January 2014 through September 2023 for between $1,050 and $2,200.
Future Motion is directly contacting known purchasers of the products, the CPSC said.
“Rider safety is our top priority and is critical to the long-term success of the sport,” a statement from Onewheel said. “This is why we also strongly encourage all riders to always wear a helmet and other protective gear while riding.”
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