The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall for all Onewheel electric skateboards. The battery-powered boards “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.

What You Need To Know

  • All Onewheel electric skateboards are being recalled for posing a crash hazard that can result in serious injury or death

  • The Consumer Product Safety Commission said four people have died riding Onewheels

  • Onewheel riders can be thrown from the device when its motor is no longer able to provide enough power or speed to balance the rider in a forward lean

  • The CPSC says consumers should immediately stop using the recalled Onewheels and should update their devices with a Haptic Buzz feature when it is available

Made by Future Motion, in Santa Cruz, Calif., the Onewheel is a unique type of skateboard that glides on a large single wheel in its center. Riders operate the board by placing one foot in front of the wheel and the other behind it, propelling and slowing themselves by leaning forward or backward, similar to the self-balancing Segway.

Future Motion first introduced its Onewheel in 2014. It now makes six different versions, including the Onewheel+, GT, Pint X, Pint and XR. The company is recalling all six models following reports that the vehicles can lose power when the speed limit has been reached or encounter other problems that toss riders from the platform.

Such nosedives occur when the boards’ motor is no longer able to provide enough power or speed to balance the rider in a forward lean. The CPSC says four people have died from riding Onewheels in recent years from traumatic head injuries. Three of the riders who died were not wearing helmets.

The CPSC said “consumers should immediately stop using the recalled Onewheel electric skateboards” and “should download or update the Onewheel app and use the app to update the firmware on their board to include Haptic Buzz alert functionality” when the update is available.

Haptic Buzz is a warning system for riders that produces a tactile and audible buzzing to let riders know when they’re reaching the limits of their boards or if the Onewheel is running low on battery or encountering an error.

Future Motion says the Haptic Buzz update will be available within a week for the Onewheel GT and within six weeks for the Pint X, Pint and XR.