The Death of the Hoverboard

[Anonymous]

Two years ago, I called it. I warned friends and family not to get caught up with this hoverboard trend and waste a ton of money on these things, because sure enough, as predicted, a few years on, and they are essentially no where to be seen. Rollerblades, scooters, Segways---all once super popular, everybody had to have one, and now they have all essentially come and gone. But why is that exactly that you no longer see someone rolling along at your local park or mall?

Josh Horowitz writes, "The US federal government said Feb. 18 that no hoverboards meet their safety standards, and retail giants from Amazon to Toys R’ US have completely stopped carrying them. You can’t transport them on dozens of airlines, or on public transportation in New York and many other cities. Riding them is forbidden in public in Britain, on New York City streets and sidewalks, in Disney Land parks around the world, and on dozens of college campuses.

From Dec. 1, 2015 alone, there have been more than 50 fires in the US related to hoverboards, the US government said, and customs is working overtime to keep them out of the country. Border patrol agents in Houston seized more than 3,500 hoverboards with suspect batteries, amounting to an estimated $1.8 million in goods, on Feb. 22, the latest in a string of busts. In the biggest, agents in Chicago seized more than 43,000 hoverboards in January, some of which had false certification from UL—the private company that acts as a standard bearer for electronic goods in the US."

Yeah, nothing says great Christmas gift like it catching on fire and burning you and/or your house down. The hoverboard also illustrates the potential dangers in popular social media trends. We saw this with the milk, ghost pepper, fire, and cinnamon challenges, how people, often young people, can get so caught up in a trend without understanding it's dangers.

In this case of something like the hoverboard which was quickly rushed into production because of it's insane popularity, companies are much more concerned with potential profit, than they are actual customer safety or the reliability of such products. They know it's a trend, and trends come and go, so as quickly as a company is built, it's torn down and dismantled along with any potential liability that comes with it especially if, like most "American" products, those products are actually mass produced overseas.

We are a nation that is in such a rush to Wall-E ourselves. We want cars that drive themselves so we don't have to make any effort, we want VR to help us totally escape our actual real world altogether, we want hoverboards that totally eliminate our need to actually do even minimal exercise by walking from point A to B...it's insane how ready we are to basically orchestrate an even slower sloth like life for ourselves that will only lead to our total disconnect from one another as well as even more cases of obesity. Hoverboards are gone for now...until the next thing.

[JudgmentDay]

Until a real hoverboard like that seen in the Back To The Future movies, it's just meh to me right now. Since they aren't what I would considered as "true" hoverboards.

I'd only bother to try one if they ever make and release one with actual anti-gravity units AND with PROPER safety measures. But I wouldn't use it because I want to avoid walking from point A to point B. It's just for the fun experience.

I'm also waiting on real working Jetpacks!

[Soteris]

What I basically get out of this is that you dont like technology and that you denounce the hoverboard because of shoddy batteries. Personally I dont think they are going anywhere. Someone will make them with higher quality and they will get cheaper as production and technology improves.

[myTake Owner]

Did you want your hoverboard burning down your entire house or catching fire on a plane because that's what the mass produced ones in a system with few regulations did or could have done had they not been stopped. There is nothing wrong with a cheap product... if it is safe enough and it works, but even in one of the most heavily regulated industries like baby products, every year, you still get unsafe products put on en mass to the public. A trend should not be put before you or anyone's actual safety, period. You can love a hoverboard to death, but if there is no oversight, that may literally be true... you will love it... to death.

[Soteris]

To start with the problem here is the lithium batteries. The some problem as with the exploding Samsung phones and exploding radio controlled toys everywhere or devices everywhere. The fact that people have forgotten how fucking dangerous these things are is scary in and of itself.

How often do you leave your laptop or phone charging while you go somewhere else, sleep or even leave the house? Did you know that you should only ever charge lithium batteries under watchful eyes? The user has been abusing lithium batteries for a very long time already and you are surprised when they blow up?

[myTake Owner]

I'm not surprised about these situations at all. There was a plane years back that caught fire and killed the whole lot due to exploding batteries. This take is literally just stating what in fact are the reasons why you see so fewer hoverboards these days and my opinions about trends that go unchecked in their rise to trendiness leading to such dangerous situations.

[bacca400]

Hm. I'd like to buy one just to use the parts to make an electric scooter.

[zagor]

I'm waiting for the REAL hoverboards, like in Back to the Future 3 (or was it 2?). They actually do exist, but are very expensive and don't work very well yet.

[JudgmentDay]

@zagor It was in BOTH 2 and 3 bro. part 2 is when they were in the future, but he kept the board for use in part 3 around the end of the movie.

[JimRSmith]

Good take, so very, very true...