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15,000 Hoverboards Seized As Unsafe In United Kingdom (nationaltradingstandards.uk)

Posted by timothy on from the pass-the-haggis-that-looks-safe dept.

puddingebola writes: National Trading Standards and trading standards services in Scotland have released figures that 15,000 of 17,000 hoverboards have been seized at ports of entry in the UK because of safety concerns. The boards were seized "due to a range of concerns, such as safety issues with the plug, cabling, charger, battery or the cut-off switch within the board, which often fails." Are we pushing hoverboard technology too far too quickly, or are there just a group of criminal sociopaths manufacturing unsafe devices at Christmastime and pumping them into the market? Mashable has a story summary with links to video of a man in Alabama with his hoverboard on fire. The government of New York City isn't so hot on hoverboards, either.

6 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Not hoverboards by ickleberry · · Score: 5, Informative

    These are those silly two-wheeled "segway with no handle" contraptions that are all the fad this year. Bought in by the container load from the Pearl River Delta for half nothing and sold in shops for £499 a pop.

  2. Unsafe unbranded clones prone to combustion by RogueyWon · · Score: 4, Informative

    The BBC article on this subject makes clear that these are cheap, unbranded Chinese and East Asian knock-offs with a documented history demonstrating that they (and specifically their chargers) are a fire risk. That BBC piece really should have been TFA.

    There are some oddities around these "hoverboards", in the UK, though. Specifically, it's illegal to operate one on either a public road or a pavement, meaning that they are legal only for use on private land. Technically, I think, the same is true of Segways.

    1. Re:Unsafe unbranded clones prone to combustion by JBMcB · · Score: 4, Informative

      They aren't really "Knock-Offs," there really isn't an official manufacturer of "Hoverboards."

      http://www.npr.org/sections/mo...

      --
      My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  3. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    2015, the year they went to in Back to the Future 2.

    However, being this is reality, it should come as no shock that "hoverboard" is a marketing gimmick for shitty electric skateboards. The Daily Show covered this well.

    Learning that not only are they shitty electric skateboards but they're also poorly made, dangerous shitty electric skateboards comes as no shock.

  4. Re:Hoverboards and universal health care by Malc · · Score: 4, Informative

    What about universal fire fighting service? Which is probably more relevant, since the BBC article references two fires in two weeks in London due to these devices.

    Three fires in London over ten days in October:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/busi...

  5. Re:Not knockoffs by raburton · · Score: 4, Informative

    UK is the only place I know of where appliances are sold without power cords.

    Really? I live in the UK and regularly buy appliances of various kinds and they have always come with a power cord, so this is news to me. I can just about remember a time when it was standard for devices to come without a plug and you were expected to wire your own on (presumably a hang over from the change in plug types and the fact that older ones were still in common usage for a while), but it's been a requirement for them to come with plugs for probably 20+ years.