High car prices have pushed people towards to the micromobility sector, where much smaller vehicles offer greater flexibility for a fraction of the cost.
High car prices have pushed people towards to the micromobility sector, where much smaller vehicles offer greater flexibility for a fraction of the cost.
My understanding from the lawsuit is that OneWheel’s issue was a software bug, and my understanding of how they handled the issues is that it wasn’t very well done.
I don’t think it was a bug. It’s just that people overpower the wheels and then crash.
Futuremotion added “haptic buzz” to help warn people when they’re near overpowering the wheel.
I’ve met lots of people who just don’t understand that the wheel keeps you balanced by driving faster than you’re leaning. If you overlean it you crash.
Louis Rossman, the revered right-to-repair crusader, had a similar take. Leaning and overleaning is inherent to how the device works and if you bust your head because you pushed past the point of failure that’s not 100% on Future Motion. I also rented a one wheel through a gear sharing app and had a similar impression: its clear when you’re reaching max lean.
What is on Future Motion and other EV manufacturers, in my opinion, is how all this bullshit tech that makes cars more difficult to repair at home or at the third party shop is being added to micro mobility devices. These vehicles should be easy to service, like a muscle bike or an unpowered skateboard. Isn’t one of the reasons cars suck that we spend way too much time/money maintaining them. I’d like that million dollars back please.
If people are blowing things up, perhaps we should teach more classes on electricity in high school. Or we could establish a trade license similar to a plumber or electrician, but certified to work on all small electronics. Obviously self-repair would still be legal, but to do it commercially in a storefront, you could guarantee that those people understand the difference between volts and amps and could define an ohm. Suddenly, 50% less houses burn down due to EV fires. (I would hope)
Ugh I typed a lot and Lemmy (or Sync) glitched and lost it.
Anyway, I completely agree.
Futuremotion makes a great product but they’re an anti-right-to-repair shitty patent troll company.
Also Floatwheel is awesome and entirely right-to-repair. And they give the middle finger to all patents and are happily operating with crypto. I paid them $2000 for their version of a Onewheel and I’ll do it again when the sequel releases in a week.
http://floatwheel.co
edit: it released today
Huh, I’m not gonna buy one because I have 2-3 more bikes/ ebikes and an electric unicycle in line in front of it, but that’s really cool. I don’t see schematics, but I didn’t look very hard. I did look at the parts section and that’s cool. Looks like they might have gotten their start making kits for other manufacturers vehicles.
Most of what I know about the recalls that were done was from a Louis Rossmann video on it, and my impression so many months later was that it was a specific design issue either software or hardware that was only an issue with OneWheels.
I don’t know which specific video I saw, and am assuming this one contains his understanding of events better than I can express it myself: https://youtu.be/Q_Mk-5XkSmY
Yeah, he nails it. I listened to the whole thing.
Basically exactly what I said, except for “ghosting” which is a problem where the board will ride without a user on it. Ghosting boards can be a hazard, but not to the rider
I’m probably misremembering then. I’ll rewatch to get back up to speed.