Let’s start with a videp before we get to the pitch
From Limes, to Birds, to Razors, the demand for e-bikes and e-scooters has exploded over the last decade. With the popularity of these devices, manufacturers have effortlessly capitalized on consumers’ desperation for convenience and simplicity. Recently taking the electronic mobility consumer demographic by storm is the electronic skateboard, Onewheel, the board “Built to Destroy Boredom.” Hands-free, convenient, and durable, this device deems itself the quintessential mode of electronic transportation. However, this unusual-looking board suffers from a significant f law — it unexpectedly nose-dives, causing catastrophic injuries.
What is Onewheel?
Onewheel, designed by company Future Motion, Inc. is a self-balancing electric skateboard that features a singular, large wheel in the center of the board. The board itself includes footpads with embedded sensors that detect the rider’s motion and adjust the voltage to the motor, constantly making small adjustments to keep the rider balanced. To accelerate speed the rider leans forward and to slow down, the rider leans backward. Additionally, the operation of the board can be controlled by an app that consumers are directed to download upon purchase of the electric transport device.1 This app reveals mileage, speed, and battery life to the consumer.2 All of these features come at a steep price tag of approximately $1,000 to $2,200 per board.3
Onewheel’s Technical Flaws
Even with all of these technical features and capabilities, the Onewheel boards’ safety features are insufficient. Specifically, Onewheels’ push back feature is significantly flawed:
Essentially, “the harder the device works to maintain operations, the less the Onewheel is able to assist the rider in balancing.”5 At a certain point, the motor’s ability to help balance the rider is lost altogether, which will cause the unexpected nosedive. Making matters worse, various factors can contribute to pushing the motor to the critical point where balance assist fails, which makes predicting when a Onewheel board will nosedive almost impossible for the rider. For example, the rider’s weight, stance, board tire pressure, battery levels, and environmental factors like wind direction and grade of incline can all impact Onewheel’s motor function and therefore could cause a nosedive.6 As a result of this “nosedive defect,” there have been at least four reported deaths between 2019 and 2021, as well as considerable reports of serious injuries, including traumatic brain injury, concussion, paralysis, upper-body fractures, lower-body fractures, and ligament damage.7
Future Motion was well-aware of this problem and attempted to address the motor-resource issue; however, its solution further exacerbated the problem. Rather than allowing the boards’ balance assist feature to fail or the battery to be damaged as the board reaches its motor’s critical point, Future Motion designed the Onewheel boards “to suddenly and unexpectedly shut down.”8 This problem could have easily been solved by incorporating a warning signal (either a light or sound) that would alert the rider “in the event of excessive speed, overcharging or low battery.”9 Future Motion also could have designed the board to gradually slow down, rather than coming to an abrupt halt which puts the rider at risk of being catapulted into the ground. However, neither of these changes have been made.
The first lawsuit against Future Motion Inc. for a Onewheel nosedive accident was filed on May 15, 2020 by the family of a Houston man who died after his Onewheel abruptly switched off while in use.10 Since then numerous accidents have occurred and resulting lawsuits filed.
First Wave of Lawsuits
The first lawsuit against Future Motion Inc. for a Onewheel nosedive accident was filed on May 15, 2020 by the family of a Houston man who died after his Onewheel abruptly switched off while in use.10 Since then numerous accidents have occurred and resulting lawsuits filed. In August of 2020, a resident of San Diego, California endured severe brain injuries on account of the Onewheel.11 In a similar disaster, a man in New York involved in a Onewheel accident suffered a punctured lung and numerous fractures after he was suddenly thrown from his board.12 Most of these lawsuits allege negligence, strict liability design defect and failure to warn claims. Some lawsuits also allege that Future Motion fraudulently advertised Onewheels and exaggerated the safety and simplicity of boards.
CPSC Calls for Recall of Onewheel Boards: “Not Worth Dying For”
After these tragic accidents, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)13 evaluated the Onewheel line of boards on November 16, 2022 and determined that these products can result in serious injury or death by means of abrupt www.MyFJA.org | November/December 2024 | 51MASSTORTS ejection off of the board.14 Unsurprisingly, in a press release issued the same day, Future Motion, Inc. disagreed with the CPSC’s pronouncement, calling the request for consumers to stop using the boards “unjustified and alarmist.” Future Motion further stated that it “sees no reason for riders to stop using their boards,” and that the boards are safe when riders follow “common-sense safe riding practices that are common to any board sport.”15 Future Motion refused to recall their Onewheel boards at that time, despite CPSC’s instruction to stop selling the product. In response, the CPSC issued a statement that warned consumers to “[i]mmediately stop using all Onewheel electronic skateboards — they are not worth dying for.”16 It further stated: “Future Motion is unwilling to take appropriate action to fix a product hazard that has killed people.”17
However, despite Future Motion’s assertion that the boards are safe, people continued to be catastrophically injured while riding them. As a result, claims against the company continued to grow. Feeling hard-pressed on account of the continuous claims, Future Motion Inc. finally chose to cooperate with the CPSC; ten months after CPSC’s original request to recall. On September 20, 2023, alongside the CPSC, Future Motion Inc. announced the recall of 300,000 Onewheel electric skateboards with an urgent directive to consumers “not to buy the Onewheel [or] use it due to the ejection hazard” and further urged consumers to not sell or donate their boards “so others are not put in danger by the hazard.”18 The recall applies to all models of Future Motion’s Onewheel skateboards (Onewheel, Onewheel+, Onewheel+ XR, Onewheel Pint, Onewheel Pint X, and Onewheel GT).19
Centralized Litigation Emerges
In light of the recall, numerous additional claims against Future Motion, Inc. continued to surface. Each case was similar, claiming Onewheel carries a life-threatening design f law due to its “Nosedive Defect” and Future Motion failed to properly warn riders about the risks of injury or death, mislead consumers, and downplayed the defects of their product.20 Consequential to the growing number of personal injury claims, Future Motion, Inc., filed a motion with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) seeking consolidation of the (then) 31 cases in 14 federal district courts into a single pretrial proceeding.21 On December 9, 2023, the JPML concurred with the defendant’s view and consolidated all the cases into the Northern District of California in front of Judge Beth Labson Freeman under MDL No. 3087.22 As of now, there are approximately 84 personal injury lawsuits against Future Motion Inc.23
Soon after MDL formation, Future Motion filed a motion to dismiss the claims on the grounds that the plaintiffs failed to identify a specific cause of the nosedives, and went so far as to state that the “propensity to nosedive is not a defect, but an effect.”24 Surprisingly, Judge Freeman agreed and dismissed all claims in the economic class action and all personal injury cases.25 However, though Freeman granted the company’s motion to dismiss, the plaintiffs were permitted to amend the allegations supporting most of their claims.26
Judge Freeman has since selected six cases that will go to trial. Two of these have been scheduled, the first of which is set to take place in April of 2026 with Daubert deadlines scheduled in November and December of 2025. In the meantime, the Magistrate Judge has coordinated a series of mandatory settlement conferences, the latest of which will take place in November of 2024.27
Conclusion
In summary, the cases filed against Future Motion have served numerous important purposes. These lawsuits highlighted significant legal and safety concerns surrounding the popular electric skateboard’s design and manufacturing. They also brought to light allegations that the company failed to address known safety issues, leading to serious injuries and even fatalities among users. Most importantly, the pressure of filed cases helped convince Future Motion to cooperate with regulatory agencies to recall these boards, despite their complete resistance at the outset. As this litigation is quickly progressing towards bellwether trials, we should soon see whether Future Motion will be held accountable for their dangerous design of the Onewheel boards.
MADELINE PENDLEY is a member of FJA, and an associate at Levin, Papantonio, Rafferty, Proctor, Buchanan, O’Brien, Barr, & Mougey, P.A. in Pensacola, Florida. Ms. Pendley focuses her practice on mass torts litigation — specifically, nitrosamine contamination cases such as Zantac and valsartan. Ms. Pendley is a member of various committees in these litigations, including the Zantac Science and Expert Committee, the Zantac Leadership Development Committee, and the Losartan and Irbesartan Committee for the valsartan litigation.
1 Onewheel App Guide, Ride + Glide (2021), https://www.rideandglide. co.uk/guides/onewheel-app-guide/ (last visited Sep 10, 2024).
2 Id.
3 Teresa Murray, Onewheel electric skateboards recalled after four deaths and dozens of serious injuries, US PIRG, Consumer Alerts (Oct. 1, 2023) https://pirg.org/edfund/articles/onewheel-electric-skateboards-recalled- after-four-deaths-and-dozens-of-serious-injuries/.
4 Complaint, ¶ 180, Bailey v. Future Motion, Inc., Case 3:22-cv-00855 (M.D. Tenn. 2023).
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 Teresa Murray, Onewheel electric skateboards recalled after four deaths and dozens of serious injuries, US PIRG, Consumer Alerts (Oct. 1, 2023) https://pirg.org/edfund/articles/onewheel-electric-skateboards-recalled-after-four-deaths-and-dozens-of-serious-injuries/.
8 Id.
9 Id.
10 Lawsuit Claims Future Motion’s Defective Onewheel Device Shut Off, Nosedived & Caused Texas Man’s Wrongful Death, PR Newswire (May 12, 2020), https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lawsuit-claims-future-motions-defective-onewheel-device-shut-off-nosedived–caused-texasmans-wrongful-death-301060146.html.
11 Id.
12 Id.
13 The federal agency that serves to protect the public from unsafe consumer products.
14 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC Warns Consumers to Stop Using Onewheel Self-Balancing Electric Skateboards Due to Ejection Hazard: At Least Four Deaths and Multiple Injuries Reported (2023), https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2023/CPSCWarns-Consumers-to-Stop-Using-Onewheel-Self-Balancing-Electric- Skateboards-Due-to-Ejection-Hazard-At-Least-Four-Deaths-and- Multiple-Injuries-Reported.
15 PR Newswire, Future Motion Responds to the CPSC’s Unjustified and Alarmist Claims Regarding Onewheels (2022), https://www.prnewswire. com/news-releases/future-motion-responds-to-the-cpscs-unjustified-andalarmist-claims-regarding-onewheels-301680207.html
16 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Future Motions Refuses to Recall Deadly Onewheel Skateboard (2022), https://www.cpsc.gov/ s3fs-public/20221115TrumkaOnewheelStatement_Final.pdf?VersionId=uJpqs6EQiMVe22M.pAZCWot2BpSwWJpr.
17 Id.
18 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC Warns Consumers to Stop Using Onewheel Self-Balancing Electric Skateboards Due to Ejection Hazard: At Least Four Deaths and Multiple Injuries Reported (2023), https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2023/CPSC-Warns-Consumers-to-Stop-Using-Onewheel-Self-Balancing-Electric-Skateboards-Dueto-Ejection-Hazard-At-Least-Four-Deaths-and-Multiple-Injuries-Reported.
19 Id.
20 Maria Dinzeo, Judge Dismisses Most Claims Against Electronic Skateboard Manufacturer, Courthouse News Service (Sept. 8, 2023), https://www. courthousenews.com/judge-dismisses-most-claims-against-electronic- skateboard-manufacturer/.
21 Onewheel MDL Gets Underway with the First Case Management Conference, Legal Examiner, September 29, 2023, https://newyork. legalexaminer.com/legal/onewheel-mdl-gets-underway-with-the-first-casemanagement-conference/.
22 In re: Onewheel Products Liability Litigation, Transfer Order MDL No. 3087 (J.P.M.L. Nov. 23, 2023), https://www.jpml.uscourts.gov/sites/jpml/ f iles/MDL-3087-Transfer_Order-11-23.pdf.
23 Company Behind Onewheel Electric Skateboard Now Recalled Faces 135 Lawsuits, Law.com, October 2, 2023, https://www.law.com/2023/10/02/ company-behind-onewheel-electric-skateboard-now-recalled- faces-135-lawsuits/.
24 Judge Dismisses Most Claims Against Electronic Skateboard Manufacturer, Courthouse News, October 4, 2023, https://www.courthousenews.com/ judge-dismisses-most-claims-against-electronic-skateboard-manufacturer/.
25 In re: Future Motion, Inc. Products Liability Litigation, Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Motion to Dismiss and Denying Motion to Strike (July 12, 2024).
26 Id. Allegations 1-5 (claims for breach of express warranty) were dismissed without leave to amend.
27 Loh v. Future Motion, Inc., Notice and Order Regarding Settlement Conference (Aug. 12, 2024)
