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