Thousands of hoverboards impounded by UK authorities over fire risk

By Trevor Mogg December 3, 2015

hoverboard — Ben Larcey/Creative Commons

Self-balancing scooters, more popularly known as hoverboards, are undoubtedly the hot ticket item on many Christmas wishlists this year.

However, UK shoppers hoping to get their hands on one of the personal transporters may be left disappointed after it was revealed Wednesday the authorities have impounded almost 90 percent of the 17,000 boards shipped to the country in the last six weeks over fears they could burst into flames.

The hoverboard, which for most people means the more common two-wheeled type rather than the futuristic wow-look-it-really-is-hovering variety, has become hugely popular in recent months, thanks in part to celebrities showing off their own ones in videos posted online.

Commenting on the safety issue, Lord Toby Harris, chair of the UK’s National Trading Standards (NTS), told the Guardian: “Our teams at sea ports, postal hubs and airports have seen a significant spike in the number of unsafe hoverboards arriving at national entry points in recent weeks and are working around the clock to prevent dangerous items from entering the supply chain.”

NTS found fault with 15,000 hoverboards out of the 17,000 units that it’s checked in recent weeks, with most of the issues reportedly centering on the hoverboard’s plug, cabling, charger, or battery. There’ve been reports of several fire-related incidents recently after the battery or charger’s cutoff function failed, causing it to overheat.

Just last weekend a leading UK retailer recalled its “Air Runner” hoverboards after discovering that its mains plug and charger failed to comply with British standards, while beyond the UK this board made international headlines on Tuesday after catching fire. Another is suspected to have caused a house fire in Louisiana after apparently exploding.

If Brits can get over the thought of their feet getting roasted or their home burning down, and can actually find a hoverboard in the stores or online, they’ll soon discover they’re pretty restricted as to where they can use it. Long-standing laws ban the machines from being ridden on streets and sidewalks – or in any public spaces, for that matter – meaning most rides will have to be taken around the dining table or in the yard.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

News

Digital Trends’ Tech For Change CES 2023 Awards

Digital Trends CES 2023 Tech For Change Award Winners Feature

CES is more than just a neon-drenched show-and-tell session for the world’s biggest tech manufacturers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place — and at CES 2023, this type of tech was on full display. We saw everything from accessibility-minded PS5 controllers to pedal-powered smart desks. But of all the amazing innovations on display this year, these three impressed us the most:

Samsung's Relumino Mode
Across the globe, roughly 300 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision loss, and generally speaking, most TVs don’t take that into account. So in an effort to make television more accessible and enjoyable for those millions of people suffering from impaired vision, Samsung is adding a new picture mode to many of its new TVs.
[CES 2023] Relumino Mode: Innovation for every need | Samsung
Relumino Mode, as it’s called, works by adding a bunch of different visual filters to the picture simultaneously. Outlines of people and objects on screen are highlighted, the contrast and brightness of the overall picture are cranked up, and extra sharpness is applied to everything. The resulting video would likely look strange to people with normal vision, but for folks with low vision, it should look clearer and closer to "normal" than it otherwise would.
Excitingly, since Relumino Mode is ultimately just a clever software trick, this technology could theoretically be pushed out via a software update and installed on millions of existing Samsung TVs -- not just new and recently purchased ones.

Entertainment

AI turned Breaking Bad into an anime — and it’s terrifying

Split image of Breaking Bad anime characters.

These days, it seems like there's nothing AI programs can't do. Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, deepfakes have done digital "face-offs" with Hollywood celebrities in films and TV shows, VFX artists can de-age actors almost instantly, and ChatGPT has learned how to write big-budget screenplays in the blink of an eye. Pretty soon, AI will probably decide who wins at the Oscars.

Within the past year, AI has also been used to generate beautiful works of art in seconds, creating a viral new trend and causing a boon for fan artists everywhere. TikTok user @cyborgism recently broke the internet by posting a clip featuring many AI-generated pictures of Breaking Bad. The theme here is that the characters are depicted as anime characters straight out of the 1980s, and the result is concerning to say the least. Depending on your viewpoint, Breaking Bad AI (my unofficial name for it) shows how technology can either threaten the integrity of original works of art or nurture artistic expression.
What if AI created Breaking Bad as a 1980s anime?
Playing over Metro Boomin's rap remix of the famous "I am the one who knocks" monologue, the video features images of the cast that range from shockingly realistic to full-on exaggerated. The clip currently has over 65,000 likes on TikTok alone, and many other users have shared their thoughts on the art. One user wrote, "Regardless of the repercussions on the entertainment industry, I can't wait for AI to be advanced enough to animate the whole show like this."

Mobile

4 simple pieces of tech that helped me run my first marathon

Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar displaying pace information.

The fitness world is littered with opportunities to buy tech aimed at enhancing your physical performance. No matter your sport of choice or personal goals, there's a deep rabbit hole you can go down. It'll cost plenty of money, but the gains can be marginal -- and can honestly just be a distraction from what you should actually be focused on. Running is certainly susceptible to this.

A few months ago, I ran my first-ever marathon. It was an incredible accomplishment I had no idea I'd ever be able to reach, and it's now going to be the first of many I run in my lifetime. And despite my deep-rooted history in tech, and the endless opportunities for being baited into gearing myself up with every last product to help me get through the marathon, I went with a rather simple approach.