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Next time, try saying it out loud first. 9 of the worst tech product names

First impressions are important. Whether it’s the first thing we see or the first thing we hear, it’s going to shape our perceptions. In the case of tech products, this means they should either look cool or sound cool. Unfortunately, sometimes the companies making these decisions get it wildly wrong, and we’re left scratching our heads wondering who on Earth thought this name was a good idea. You know them when you see them, but here they are in one place. These are the worst tech product names in recent history.

OnePlus Anything

OnePlus 6T review
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

This is one of those instances where it almost sounds normal now, but when this company first started releasing phones, enthusiasts hoping to impress their friends and family with their new OnePlus One were understandably met with blank stares. It didn’t help that no one had ever heard of OnePlus before. For years, if you searched “X” online, Google would try to help by returning a solved math equation ahead of any relevant search results.

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Swagtron Hoverboard

Image used with permission by copyright holder

This is the “Hey there, fellow kids” of product names. Looking past the fact that we still think calling these things “hoverboards” is outrageously misleading, this name sounds like it was conceived by a 36-year-old man in drop-crotch pants trying to convince a room full of suits that this name was, in fact, “lit”. And, somehow, they gave it the greenlight.

Belty Smart Belt

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Belty is almost as lazy a name as the idea that putting on a belt is somehow a task that needs to be made easier. This is why the robots will win, people.

LG XBOOM AI ThinQ WK9 Smart Display with Meridian Audio and Google Assistant Built-In

LG XBOOM AI ThinQ WK9 Smart Display
Dan Baker/Digital Trends

We get it, you’re excited about your product, but with all those buzzwords and acronyms smashed together, we have to be honest. It feels like you’re overcompensating for something here, LG.

Nintendo Wii U

Stefano Tinti/123rf

Calling the first iteration the Wii was ridiculous enough, and adding U at the end of its moniker didn’t offer any reprieve. We’re not sure what Nintendo’s obsession with misspelled pronouns was back then, but the consequence was an Internet flooded with memes mocking the system’s name because, when spoken aloud, it sounds similar to the sound of an ambulance siren. And yes, it got old fast.

Giant Quick-E+

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Who doesn’t love a good Quick-E?

iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max

iPhone XS review
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

We can’t just give Apple a pass because it’s one of the richest and most powerful companies in the world. Every year they play the name game, and every year they find new ways to confuse us all. As far as we can tell, your first instincts on how to pronounce a given iPhone name are almost assuredly wrong.

Diesel On Full Guard 2.5

Diesel On Full Guard 2.5 Hands-on Review
Rich Shibley/Digital Trends

Maybe this isn’t as bad as some of the others, but it’s still an enigma. Allow us to unravel this one: Diesel is the brand, On is the name of its smartwatch series, and Full Guard is the name of the watch. As for why it’s 2.5 and not just 2 or 2.0, you might wonder? In an email to Digital Trends, Andrea Rosso, Diesel’s head of licensing, told us it’s “because we made an incredible update on it, taking it to the next level, and we wanted to make it clear starting from the name.” You know what we call that where I’m from, Andrea? We call that being extra.

Palm Palm (2018)

Palm home screen
Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends

This is a “phone” for the history books. Not only did Palm try to convince us that the cure for screen addiction was to carry another, smaller screen with us in addition to the one we’re already carrying — they also called it Palm. The result was the Palm Palm, pronounced the same way as those things no one will be clapping together to cheer on a successor to this phone phone.

Chris DeGraw
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Star Wars legend Ian McDiarmid gets questions about the Emperor’s sex life
Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

This weekend, the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 20th anniversary re-release had a much stronger performance than expected with $25 million and a second-place finish behind Sinners. Revenge of the Sith was the culmination of plans by Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) that led to the fall of the Jedi and his own ascension to emperor. Because McDiarmid's Emperor died in his first appearance -- 1983's Return of the Jedi -- Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be his live-action swan song. However, Palpatine's return in Star Wars: Episode IX -- The Rise of Skywalker left McDiarmid being asked questions about his character's comeback, particularly about his sex life and how he could have a granddaughter.

While speaking with Variety, McDiarmid noted that fans have asked him "slightly embarrassing questions" about Palpatine including "'Does this evil monster ever have sex?'"

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Waymo and Toyota explore personally owned self-driving cars
Front three quarter view of the 2023 Toyota bZ4X.

Waymo and Toyota have announced they’re exploring a strategic collaboration—and one of the most exciting possibilities on the table is bringing fully-automated driving technology to personally owned vehicles.
Alphabet-owned Waymo has made its name with its robotaxi service, the only one currently operating in the U.S. Its vehicles, including Jaguars and Hyundai Ioniq 5s, have logged tens of millions of autonomous miles on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.
But shifting to personally owned self-driving cars is a much more complex challenge.
While safety regulations are expected to loosen under the Trump administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has so far taken a cautious approach to the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles. General Motors-backed Cruise robotaxi was forced to suspend operations in 2023 following a fatal collision.
While the partnership with Toyota is still in the early stages, Waymo says it will initially study how to merge its autonomous systems with the Japanese automaker’s consumer vehicle platforms.
In a recent call with analysts, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai signaled that Waymo is seriously considering expanding beyond ride-hailing fleets and into personal ownership. While nothing is confirmed, the partnership with Toyota adds credibility—and manufacturing muscle—to that vision.
Toyota brings decades of safety innovation to the table, including its widely adopted Toyota Safety Sense technology. Through its software division, Woven by Toyota, the company is also pushing into next-generation vehicle platforms. With Waymo, Toyota is now also looking at how automation can evolve beyond assisted driving and into full autonomy for individual drivers.
This move also turns up the heat on Tesla, which has long promised fully self-driving vehicles for consumers. While Tesla continues to refine its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, it remains supervised and hasn’t yet delivered on full autonomy. CEO Elon Musk is promising to launch some of its first robotaxis in Austin in June.
When it comes to self-driving cars, Waymo and Tesla are taking very different roads. Tesla aims to deliver affordability and scale with its camera, AI-based software. Waymo, by contrast, uses a more expensive technology relying on pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar and lidar (a laser-light radar), that regulators have been quicker to trust.

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Uber partners with May Mobility to bring thousands of autonomous vehicles to U.S. streets
uber may mobility av rides partnership

The self-driving race is shifting into high gear, and Uber just added more horsepower. In a new multi-year partnership, Uber and autonomous vehicle (AV) company May Mobility will begin rolling out driverless rides in Arlington, Texas by the end of 2025—with thousands more vehicles planned across the U.S. in the coming years.
Uber has already taken serious steps towards making autonomous ride-hailing a mainstream option. The company already works with Waymo, whose robotaxis are live in multiple cities, and now it’s welcoming May Mobility’s hybrid-electric Toyota Sienna vans to its platform. The vehicles will launch with safety drivers at first but are expected to go fully autonomous as deployments mature.
May Mobility isn’t new to this game. Backed by Toyota, BMW, and other major players, it’s been running AV services in geofenced areas since 2021. Its AI-powered Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) tech allows it to react quickly and safely to unpredictable real-world conditions—something that’s helped it earn trust in city partnerships across the U.S. and Japan.
This expansion into ride-hailing is part of a broader industry trend. Waymo, widely seen as the current AV frontrunner, continues scaling its service in cities like Phoenix and Austin. Tesla, meanwhile, is preparing to launch its first robotaxis in Austin this June, with a small fleet of Model Ys powered by its camera-based Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. While Tesla aims for affordability and scale, Waymo and May are focused on safety-first deployments using sensor-rich systems, including lidar—a tech stack regulators have so far favored.
Beyond ride-hailing, the idea of personally owned self-driving cars is also gaining traction. Waymo and Toyota recently announced they’re exploring how to bring full autonomy to private vehicles, a move that could eventually bring robotaxi tech right into your garage.
With big names like Uber, Tesla, Waymo, and now May Mobility in the mix, the ride-hailing industry is evolving fast—and the road ahead looks increasingly driver-optional.

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