Amazon has removed many, but not all, brands of hoverboards from its website following reports of the popular Christmas present catching fire.
Without any public announcement, models of the self-balancing scooters from makers like Swagway and Phunkeeduck have disappeared from the online retailer. Hoverboards from brands like Jetson and Razor remain for sale. Overstock.com announced that it would no longer sell the gadgets due to safety concerns.
The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is already in the midst of a massive investigation into the safety of hoverboards. Those two-wheeled death machines are dangerous and there are currently no safety standards in place. The investigation includes both accidents that caused injuries and incidents where hoverboards caught on fire.
Delta (DAL), United (UAL) and American (AAL) announced they wouldn’t allow hoverboards on flights because of safety concerns related to the devices’ lithium-ion batteries. Delta said it decided that certain hoverboard makers don’t disclose adequate information about the size or power of the batteries inside the devices. Federal rules limit the types of batteries allowed on planes because of the risk of combustion. The bans are the latest setback for the scooters, which rely on wheels and don’t actually hover.
A video showing a hoverboard bursting into flames in a Washington mall swept across the internet. This happened within a day of another hoverboard catching fire in a New York home and a couple weeks after a flaming hoverboard destroyed a family’s home in Louisiana. This is scary stuff.
In October, British authorities declared the scooters illegal to ride in public and nearly 90% of those imported since mid-October have been seized. The New York Police Department followed suit a month later.
Sources: gizmodo.com; youtube.com; money.cnn.com