OneWheel
OneWheel, created by Future Motion Inc., is a popular self-balancing motorized skateboard that rolls on a single large wheel. Since hitting the market in 2015, every rider has not experienced “pure-joy” as their website promotes. Instead, many riders have experience death, while many others have suffered life-altering injuries.
Their personal relationship was something I needed, but didn’t know that I needed at the time. And their ability to have answers and solutions to problems that I didn’t know I had yet, was huge!
Chad C.
The personal injury litigation against Future Motion, Inc. arising from various alleged defects of the Onewheel boards was coordinated in federal and California State Court in 2024. Pearce Lewis attorneys serve on leadership in both proceedings, (federal MDL 3087 and California JCCP 5305, Santa Cruz County). Pearce Lewis was, in addition, appointed by the Court to serve as liaison counsel on behalf of all Plaintiffs’ counsel in JCCP 5305. Pearce Lewis co-represents the vast majority of personal injury actions pending against Future Motion, Inc. in California and are proud of leading the charge in creating the California coordinated proceeding.
In the spirit of masterminding products that “bridge recreation and transportation,” Future Motion Inc. set out to create unique and fun riding machines known as the Onewheel. Unfortunately, the company downplayed the risks of several alleged design defects that causes the boards to nosedive without any warning and which results in throwing the rider directly into the pavement often at high rates of speed. The most common alleged design defect is a faulty warning system known as “pushback” which is ultimately intended to protect the board, not the rider. Pushback is described as when the front of the board lifts upward so as to indicate to the rider when the board is approaching the limits of its capabilities, whether in terms of speed, weight, incline or a combination. Unfortunately, pushback often does not occur when it is supposed to and/or is so subtle that the rider could not reasonably be expected to sense it. As a result, the board’s self-balancing technology shuts off without warning, and on a dime, throwing the rider violently forward and into the ground. Other alleged defects include the unilateral and complete shutoff of the boards, faulty footpads that cause the board to sense no rider is aboard and thus stop without warning, run-away boards where the boards unilaterally speed up despite the rider attempting to slow down, and finally, “ghosting” where the boards ride away by themselves. The alleged defects of the boards, and Future Motion, Inc.’s refusal to adequately warn of their known and knowable dangers, has caused severe injuries in its riders which could and should have been avoided or warned against.
Pearce Lewis is a national leader in the personal injury actions against Future Motion, Inc. In October of 2020, we filed the first wrongful death lawsuit in the country against Future Motion, Inc. and since then we have filed more than 100 additional lawsuits against Future Motion, Inc. because of the serious injuries sustained by riders of its boards. Future Motion, Inc., who claims to pride itself on deeply caring for its community of enthusiastic riders and the “float life” has shown particular callousness in response to injured riders and refused to acknowledge it boards posed any risk until they were forced to as a result of an investigation of the Consumer Product Safety Commission that resulted in a temporary recall in 2023. Despite that recall, the boards are still on the market, and Future Motion, Inc. is still continuing to encourage people to “be rad” and get on a Onewheel without warning of the risks the boards pose.
