After trying one for a bit I always wanted to get one, but never felt fully safe riding it. I even asked them repeatedly if they ever had a plan to introduce a board with some kind of additional set of wheels or bearings on the ends to let you "roll out" in the event of a power failure. The issues has always been that, in the event of a loss of power for any reason, because you are usually leaning forward, the board grinds to an almost immediate stop and you just go flying. Happened to me once in the sand and even that hurt. The board basically decelerates to zero instantly.
I thought long and hard about buying one and modifying the skid plates with a row of large ball bearings or maybe even small skateboard wheels. You just need something so that if the power fails you at least can attempt some kind of recovery. The way it is now, if the power fails, you are simply getting launched. I always wondered how they hadn't been sued into oblivion, always thinking to myself, "Someone must have died from this by now." I guess at least four people have… but somehow they've been able to produce and sell these for nearly a decade.
Onewheel started with a 2014 Kickstarter with 400 units that had 5 miles of range and a 13 mph top speed. The 2017 XR and 2020 and later GT and Pint versions that can go 20+ miles at 20+ miles per hour are incredibly new as far as transportation tech goes.
2021, when the most recent death was reported, was literally just last year. That's light speed for a bureacracy.
Technology is far faster than regulation - this is true with respect to Uber, Twitter, Onewheel, AirBNB, and a dozen other new tech companies.
After trying one for a bit I always wanted to get one, but never felt fully safe riding it. I even asked them repeatedly if they ever had a plan to introduce a board with some kind of additional set of wheels or bearings on the ends to let you "roll out" in the event of a power failure. The issues has always been that, in the event of a loss of power for any reason, because you are usually leaning forward, the board grinds to an almost immediate stop and you just go flying. Happened to me once in the sand and even that hurt. The board basically decelerates to zero instantly.
I thought long and hard about buying one and modifying the skid plates with a row of large ball bearings or maybe even small skateboard wheels. You just need something so that if the power fails you at least can attempt some kind of recovery. The way it is now, if the power fails, you are simply getting launched. I always wondered how they hadn't been sued into oblivion, always thinking to myself, "Someone must have died from this by now." I guess at least four people have… but somehow they've been able to produce and sell these for nearly a decade.