Self-balancing scooter

Last updated
A self-balancing scooter (hoverboard) Red self-balancing two-wheeled board with a person standing on it.png
A self-balancing scooter (hoverboard)

A self-balancing scooter (also hoverboard, self-balancing board, segway, [1] swegway or electric scooter board) is a self-balancing personal transporter consisting of two motorized wheels connected to a pair of articulated pads on which the rider places their feet. The rider controls the speed by leaning forward or backward, and direction of travel by twisting the pads.

Contents

Invented in its current form in early 2013, the device is the subject of complex patent disputes. Volume manufacture started in China in 2014 and early units were prone to catching fire due to an overheating battery which resulted in product recalls in 2016, including over 500,000 units sold in the United States by eight manufacturers. There have been 23 official recalls since 2016, affecting around 1,115,200 units in total. [2]

History

A cosplayer riding a self-balancing board at the 2015 Wizard World Chicago WW Chicago 2015 - Astronaut (21038388892).jpg
A cosplayer riding a self-balancing board at the 2015 Wizard World Chicago

Shane Chen, an Chinese businessman and founder of Inventist filed a patent for a device of this type in February 2013 [3] and launched a Kickstarter fund-raising campaign in May 2013. [4]

The devices' increasing popularity in USA has been attributed, initially, to endorsement by the wide array of celebrities (including Justin Bieber, Jamie Foxx, Kendall Jenner, Chris Brown, Soulja Boy and Wiz Khalifa). [5] [6] [7] [8] The founders of the American company PhunkeeTree encountered the board at the Hong Kong Electronics Show in 2014 and became involved in its distribution shortly thereafter. [5]

By June 2015, the board was being made by several manufacturers, mainly in the Shenzhen region of China. [9] In January 2015 through Inventist, he announced his intention to pursue litigation [10] In April 2015, Ninebot, a significant manufacturer of devices acquired Segway Inc. (which separately asserted that it holds patents for self-balancing scooters.[ citation needed ]) in order to resolve the dispute. [11] In May, Chen voiced his frustrations regarding patent rights in China. [12] In August 2015, Mark Cuban announced plans to purchase the Hovertrax patents from Chen. [13] Many of the units provided in the first year of manufacture were defective and likely to catch fire, resulting in a major product recall from multiple manufacturers during 2016 (more details below). [14] [15] [16] [17]

In June 2016 the U.S. International Trade Commission issued an injunction for patent infringement against UPTECH, U.P. Technology, U.P. Robotics, FreeGo China, EcoBoomer, and Roboscooters. Robstep, INMOTION, Tech in the City, FreeGo settled with Segway. [18]

Etymology of "hoverboard"

The use of the term "hoverboard" to describe these devices, despite the fact that they do not hover, has led to considerable discussion in the media. [19] [20] [21]

The first use of the term for can be traced back to a 1967 science fiction novel by M. K. Joseph and subsequently popularized in the 1989 film, Back to the Future Part II where Marty McFly uses one after traveling to 2015. [22] While the first trademarked use of hoverboard was registered in 1996 as a collecting and trading game, its first use as a commercial name representing a wheeled scooter was in 1999,[ citation needed ] and Guinness World Records lists a farthest hoverboard flight entry. [23] In September 2015 the Oxford English Dictionary stated in their view the term had not been in use in the context for long enough for inclusion and that for the time being they would restrict their description to boards "that Marty McFly would recognize". [24] [25] The term "self-balancing electric scooter" remains popular. [26]

Design and operation

How to ride self-balancing scooter images step by step Self-balancing-electric-scooter-riding-320x246.jpg
How to ride self-balancing scooter images step by step

The device has three 6.5 inches (170 mm), 8 inches (200 mm), 10 inches (250 mm) diameter wheel [27] [28] variants connected to a self-balancing control mechanism using built-in gyroscopic and a sensor pad. By tilting the pad the rider can control the speed and direction of travel achieving speeds from 6 to 15 miles per hour (9.7 to 24 km/h) [29] with a range of up to 15 miles (24 km) dependent on model, terrain, rider weight and other factors. [27]

As with most wheeled vehicles where the rider is exposed, Consumer Reports has recommended that users wear appropriate safety gear while using them. [30]

In 2019, hoverboards now feature a self balancing mode, in which the motors automatically engage the gyroscope in the opposite direction. This way, when the rider leans forward or backward the board is always attempting to level itself, making it easier to ride than its 2016 predecessors. [31]

Issues and incidents

A Customs and Border Protection officer at the Chicago field office stands between aisles of seized counterfeit hoverboards. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Seize Unsafe Counterfeit Hoverboards (24621828626).jpg
A Customs and Border Protection officer at the Chicago field office stands between aisles of seized counterfeit hoverboards.

There were many instances of units catching fire, with claims that they were responsible for numerous residential fires between late 2015 into 2016. [11] In the United Kingdom, authorities expressed concerns with the boards, regarding possible faulty wiring. [32] Many airlines banned the transportation of the boards, both as stored or carry-on luggage. [33]

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) launched an investigation into the safety of the device in late 2015 [34] and determined that the lithium-ion battery packs in the self-balancing scooters/hoverboards could overheat and posed a risk of catching fire or exploding, and that defects had led to 60 fires in over 20 states. [35] In July 2016 the commission ordered the recall of over 500,000 units from eight manufacturers. The Swagway model X1 constituted the majority of the recalled "hoverboards," at 267,000 units. [36] [37]

In January 2016, the Philippine Department of Health and Trade and Industry issued a joint advisory cautioning the public against buying them, due to reports of injuries and "potential electrocution connected with its usage". The advisory also stated “as a precautionary measure, the DOH and DTI-Consumer Protection Group therefore advise parents against buying hoverboards for children under 14 years of age.” [38]

In May 2016, the miniPRO produced by Segway Inc. received UL certification, as did a company in Shenzhen, China. [11] In June 2016, after safety improvements in design, the UL-approved Swagtron was launched in the United States. [39]

In March 2017, a self-balancing board was found to be the cause for a fire that killed two children in Harrisburg. [40]

In 2018, a self-balancing board was blamed for a fire that severely damaged a Michigan home. [41]

In March 2023, a self-balancing board was recalled for causing an April 2022 fire in Hellertown, Pennsylvania that killed two sisters. [42]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Segway</span> Two-wheeled, self-balancing personal vehicle

A Segway is a two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transporter device invented by Dean Kamen. It is a registered trademark of Segway Inc. It was brought to market in 2001 as the Segway HT, and then subsequently as the Segway PT.HT is an initialism for "human transporter" and PT for "personal transporter."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric unicycle</span> Self-balancing single wheel personal transporter

An electric unicycle is a self-balancing personal transporter with a single wheel. The rider controls speed by leaning forwards or backwards, and steers by twisting or tilting the unit side to side. The self-balancing mechanism uses accelerometers and gyroscopes. Most manufacturers of EUCs are based out of China, including Segway, Inmotion, Kingsong, Begode, and Leaperkim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Longboard (skateboard)</span> Type of sports equipment similar to skateboard

A longboard is a type of skateboard typified by longer decks and wheelbases, larger-diameter and softer (lower-durometer) wheels, and often lower riding height compared to street skateboards, though there is wide variation in the geometry and construction of longboards. Among the earliest types of skateboards, longboards were inspired by surfing, with early longboards drawing from the design of surfboards, resembling and mimicking the motion of riding a surfboard, but adapted to riding on streets in a practice known as sidewalk surfing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoverboard</span> Self-levitating board

A hoverboard is a fictional levitating board used for personal transportation, first described in science-fiction, and made famous by the appearance of a skateboard-like hoverboard in the film Back to the Future Part II. Many attempts have been made to invent a functioning hoverboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric bicycle</span> Bicycle with an integrated electric motor

An electric bicycle, e-bike, electrically assisted pedal cycle, or electrically power assisted cycle is a motorized bicycle with an integrated electric motor used to assist propulsion. Many kinds of e-bikes are available worldwide, but they generally fall into two broad categories: bikes that assist the rider's pedal-power and bikes that add a throttle, integrating moped-style functionality. Both retain the ability to be pedaled by the rider and are therefore not electric motorcycles. E-bikes use rechargeable batteries and typically are motor-powered up to 25 to 32 km/h. High-powered varieties can often travel up to or more than 45 km/h (28 mph).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorized scooter</span> Powered stand-up scooter

A motorized scooter is a stand-up scooter powered by either a small internal combustion engine or electric hub motor in its front and/or rear wheel. Classified as a form of micromobility, they are generally designed with a large center deck on which the rider stands. The first motorized scooter was manufactured by Autoped in 1915.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Two-wheeler</span>

A two-wheeler is a vehicle that runs on two wheels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dicycle</span> Vehicle with two parallel wheels

A dicycle is a vehicle with two parallel wheels, side by side, unlike single-track vehicles such as motorcycles and bicycles, which have two wheels inline. Originally used to refer to devices with large wheels and pedals, the term is now used in relation to powered self-balancing scooters with smaller wheels and no pedals such as the Segway PT and the self-balancing hoverboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caster board</span> Two-wheeled, human-powered land vehicle

A caster board, vigorboard or waveboard is a two-wheeled, human-powered land vehicle. Other names are J-board and RipStik, both of which are derived from commercial brands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric skateboard</span> Type of skateboard powered by an electric motor

An electric skateboard is a personal transporter based on a skateboard. The speed is usually controlled by a wireless hand-held throttle remote, or rider body weight-shifting between front of the board for forward motion and rear for braking. As for the direction of travel to the right or left, it is adjusted by tilting the board to one side or the other. The classification of electric skateboards and legality of their use on roads or pavements varies between countries.

Dynacraft BSC, Inc. is a privately held United States–based distributor of bicycles, scooters, battery-operated ride-on, and electric ride-on. Dynacraft is based in Port Wentworth, Georgia, and has its distribution center located there as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Segway Inc.</span> Chinese-acquired American maker of self-balancing personal transporters

Segway Inc. is a Chinese owned, formerly American manufacturer of two-wheeled personal transporters, chiefly through its Segway PT and Segway miniPro product lines. Founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1999, the company's name is a homophone of the word "segue".

Razor USA LLC, better known as Razor, is an American designer and manufacturer of manual and electric scooters, bicycles, and personal transporters. The company was founded in Cerritos, California in 2000 by Carlton Calvin and the JD Corporation. Razor also owns the RipStik, Sole Skate, and Pocket Pros brands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flyboard</span> Brand of hydroflighting device

A Flyboard is a brand of hydroflighting device which supplies propulsion to drive the Flyboard into the air to perform a sport known as hydroflying.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shane Chen</span> Chinese-American inventor

Shane Chen is a Chinese-American inventor and entrepreneur based in Camas, Washington. He is best known for inventing the self-balancing hoverboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onewheel</span> Self-balancing personal transporter

Onewheel is a self-balancing electric skateboard with a single tire, used as a means of transportation and for boardsports. Riders place their feet on either side of the tire to face sideways, leaning forward to accelerate and leaning backward to slow down. The board was engineered to emulate the feeling of snowboarding on powder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Personal transporter</span> Ridable small motorised road vehicles

A personal transporter is any of a class of compact, mostly recent, motorised micromobility vehicle for transporting an individual at speeds that do not normally exceed 25 km/h (16 mph). They include electric skateboards, kick scooters, self-balancing unicycles and Segways, as well as gasoline-fueled motorised scooters or skateboards, typically using two-stroke engines of less than 49 cc (3.0 cu in) displacement. Many newer versions use recent advances in vehicle battery and motor-control technologies. They are growing in popularity, and legislators are in the process of determining how these devices should be classified, regulated and accommodated during a period of rapid innovation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lime (transportation company)</span> American micromobility company

Neutron Holdings, Inc., doing business under the name Lime, formerly LimeBike, is an American transportation company based in San Francisco, California. It runs electric scooters, electric bikes and electric mopeds in more than 200 cities in nearly 30 countries around the world. The system offers dockless vehicles that users find and unlock via a smartphone app that knows the location of available vehicles via GPS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micromobility</span> Modes of transport involving very light vehicles

Micromobility refers to a range of small, lightweight vehicles, driven by users personally. Micromobility devices include bicycles, velomobiles, e-bikes, electric scooters, electric skateboards, shared bicycle fleets, and electric pedal assisted (pedelec) bicycles.

References

  1. ↑ Williams, Zoe (2015-10-16). "Move over cars, the Swegway is here. Or it would be if it wasn't illegal". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  2. ↑ Rasmus Barslund (23 January 2024). "Full list of U.S. hoverboard recalls". ERideHero.
  3. ↑ Two-wheel, self-balancing vehicle with independently movable foot placement sections US 8738278 B2
  4. ↑ "Hovertrax". Kickstarter. 1 May 2013.
  5. 1 2 Pierce, David (29 June 2015). "The Weird Origin Story of the World's Most Viral Scooter". Wired. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Rick Broida (August 26, 2015). "Meet the 'hoverboard' that got Wiz Khalifa arrested". Fortune.
  7. ↑ Naushad K Cherrayil (October 5, 2015). "Hoverboards seen hogging limelight at Gitex Shopper". Gulf News.
  8. ↑ Robert A. Chronkleton (September 20, 2015). "2-wheel electric scooters take off". The Kansas City Star.
  9. ↑ Joseph Bernstein (November 27, 2015). "How To Make Millions Of Hoverboards (Almost) Overnight". Buzzfeed. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  10. ↑ Jerry Beilinson (7 January 2015). "Hovertrax and the battle of the auto-balancing skateboards". Consumer Reports.
  11. 1 2 3 Hiawatha Bray (13 May 2016). "Segway pounces on hoverboard market". Boston Globe.
  12. ↑ Kaiman, Jonathan (May 30, 2015). "For Solowheel maker, a patent rights nightmare in China". Los Angeles Times.
  13. ↑ CW33 (September 18, 2015). "Patent wars: Mark Cuban involved in 'hoverboard' battle". AOL. Archived from the original on November 24, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2015.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ↑ Dan Hyde (December 16, 2015). "Amazon tells customers: Get rid of your exploding hoverboards". The Telegraph.
  15. ↑ James Eng (December 16, 2015). "Man Sues Hoverboard Maker Swagway Over Fire That Damaged His Home". NBC News.
  16. ↑ "Is The Popular Hoverboard The Most Dangerous Holiday Gift?". CBS Detroit. December 29, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Hoverboard sparks house fire in Australia". The Telegraph. January 5, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Certain Personal Transporters, Components Thereof, and Manuals Therefor; Issuance of a General Exclusion Order, a Limited Exclusion Order, and a Cease and Desist Order, Termination of Investigation". Federal Register. 13 June 2016.
  19. ↑ Nick Statt (January 8, 2016). "They're called hoverboards now, and there's nothing we can do about it". The Verge.
  20. ↑ Jessica Contrera (August 31, 2015). "Your fancy scooter is cool, but it's not a 'hoverboard.' Why don't we have hoverboards yet?". Washington Post. Retrieved May 12, 2016.
  21. ↑ Rachel Bishop (December 30, 2015). "5 reasons you CAN call it a hoverboard even if it doesn't hover". Metro.co.uk.
  22. ↑ Shea, Ammon. "Hoverboard". Merriam-Webster . Retrieved 2016-04-23. The word hoverboard has recently seen a dramatic surge in use, as a result of it being widely used to describe a kind of scooter, one which has two wheels attached to a small platform and is operated in a hands-free fashion. That it does not hover seems not to bother people as much as the fact that the devices are, at least in this early state of development, rather prone to catching on fire. [...] Although the word hoverboard did not enjoy widespread use until after this cinematic exposure, it did exist before this time. In 1986 it appeared in an issue of Texas Monthly magazine, in Stephan Harrington's imagining of what Texas might look like in the year 2036 [...] But the earliest currently known use of the word, by a long shot, comes from a 1967 book by M. K. Joseph, The Hole in the Zero. This novel, subtitled A Story of the Future, falls into the genre of what might be called speculative science-fiction. [...] We should not be so surprised that the wheeled variety now so seemingly ubiquitous should have been granted its slightly imprecise name; when you come down to it, hoverboard is probably a catchier name than rollerboard and certainly preferable to fireboard.
  23. ↑ Kevin Lynch (April 30, 2016). "Confirmed: Franky Zapata sets new Farthest hoverboard flight record in France". Guinness World Records. Retrieved May 12, 2016.
  24. ↑ "hoverboard". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  25. ↑ Jonathan Dent (September 2015). "New words notes September 2015". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved October 14, 2015. But what is a real hoverboard? The prototypes unveiled by Lexus and ArxPax recently clearly satisfy the most important criteria for Back to the Future fans: they hover. Both rely on the repelling power of intense magnetic fields—generated by superconducting magnets cooled by liquid nitrogen—acting on a special magnetized track. So neither holds out the possibility that we'll all be zooming around towns and cities on them anytime soon. On the other hand, the boards ridden by rapper Wiz Khalifa at Los Angeles airport recently (ridden, that is, until police wrestled him to the ground), and by a pilgrim performing the tawaf in Mecca are hoverboards in name only: the word is currently registered as a trademark in the US and the UK by manufacturers of a miniature, Segway-style, two-wheeled vehicle which stays firmly on the ground. Whether these devices take off (while not actually taking off) remains to be seen; certainly, they haven't been round long enough to be included in the new OED entry, which restricts itself to boards that Marty McFly would recognize
  26. ↑ Adario Strange (April 16, 2016). "The rise and fall of the hoverboard". Mashable . Retrieved May 12, 2016.
  27. 1 2 "Top 10 Best Hoverboards in 2017 – Buyer's guide". top10thebest. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  28. ↑ "Swagtron T6 Off-Road Hoverboard - Self Balancing Scooter with 10" Wheel". Best offroad hoverboard. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  29. ↑ "What's the Hoverboard's Top Speed?". Best electric hoverboard. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  30. ↑ Christopher Raymond (December 15, 2015). "Hoverboard Safety: Consumer Reports Puts Self-Balancing Scooters to the Test". Consumer Reports. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  31. ↑ "2019's Hoverboard Price Guide - How to choose the best Hoverboard". GOTRAX. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  32. ↑ Tomlinson, R. Tyler (16 December 2015). "Holiday Safety Concerns: Hoverboards Catching on Fire". The National Law Review. Stark & Stark. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  33. ↑ Ben Mutzabaugh (December 14, 2015). "All of the USA's big airlines now ban hoverboards". USA Today . Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  34. ↑ Diana Samuels (2015-12-09). "Another hoverboard toy explodes in Louisiana, TV station says". www.nola.com. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  35. ↑ "Chairman's Hoverboard Press Statement". U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. July 6, 2016. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  36. ↑ "More than 500,000 hoverboards are being recalled". The Verge. 6 July 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  37. ↑ "Self-Balancing Scooters/Hoverboards Recalled by 10 Firms Due to Fire Hazard". Consumer Product Safety Commission. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  38. ↑ "DOH, DTI warn public vs use of hoverboards". The Philippine Star . January 10, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
  39. ↑ "SWAGTRON to launch world's first UL2272 approved hoverboard available for retail in the USA". 1 June 2016.
  40. ↑ "Following Fatal House Fire, CPSC Warns Consumers To Stop Using LayZ Board Hoverboards". 1 May 2017.
  41. ↑ "Hoverboard bursts into flames while charging, damages Clarkston home". 1 January 2018.
  42. ↑ Pollard, Aidan (2023-03-31). "A popular brand of hoverboard was just recalled, nearly a year after two sisters died in a fire authorities linked to the toy". Business Insider . Archived from the original on 2023-03-31. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.