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Every single Onewheel is being recalled after four deaths (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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.

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[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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?

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not really a hardware error so much as ignorant people who can't judge their current speeds and don't wear helmets. You have to be creeping up on 20MPH and still in a heavy forward lean for the system to hard fail like that. The article was also written by someone completely ignorant to physics or how onewheels operate. The writer at one point stupidly says they could make the ow slow to a stop or disable the motor but keep the balance function powered on.

[–] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

You have to be creeping up on 20MPH and still in a heavy forward lean for the system to hard fail like that.

Wait so this particular failure mode occurs if you're in a forward lean when it approaches its top speed? And as soon as it isn't able to push hard enough to offset the lean the front dips so that it catches the edge and the rider flips off of it?

If simply exceeding the top speed leads to catastrophic failure, and there's literally no way to safely engineer in a speed limiter, that's an inherently dangerous design.

[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

That is correct, of course. But if so, it should be the first thing mentioned.