Gadgetory

hoverboards are dead but there is one hope for their survival I'm Bridget Carey this is your CNET update the hoverboard was the hottest holiday gift in 2015 until it became the hottest holiday gift for Catching Fire you've seen the YouTube videos and reports of these self-balancing scooters combusting sometimes the fire breaks out when it's just sitting in a room charging there was no safety standard for this sort of product and many cheap knockoffs started flooding the market adding to the concerns last week the US Consumer Product Safety Commission sent out a letter deeming all hoverboards unsafe for posing an unreasonable risk of fire the federal regulatory agency received reports of 52 hoverboard fires since December and advised retailers to only some models that meet the safety standards by Underwriters Laboratories most commonly known as ul you've likely seen the ul certification logos on many electronics you purchase so now major retailers including Amazon Toys R Us Target and Walmart have pulled hoverboards and amazon is offering refunds several major airlines already banned the devices and in New York City there are now signs up telling writers that hoverboards are banned from public transit the folks at ul started testing these things this month and scénic got a behind-the-scenes look at the independent labs where they are being examined and they're not testing how easy it is to ride this is about the safety of the battery and the charger and overall electrical system inside lithium ion batteries can dish out some serious damage when they explode there are various stress tests and torture tests including holding the wheel and a vise for 7 hours to see if it overheats no hoverboard has been certified safe yet but when one does will any retailer be okay with selling it again when there's such a bad reputation now and when you see signs all over public transit and airlines are banning it I doubt authorities are going to be keeping up to speed on which models are deemed safe by ul to just allow one or two hoverboards could be doomed they can escape the bad image by evolving into a new type of product maybe that won't actually be until they hover what do you think about the hoverboard issue do you have one you still ride or will you try it if there's a model deemed safe by ul reach out by emailing update at cnet.com or you can find me on twitter from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey