Float History

Future Motion, Inc.’s Onewheel GT production launch on March 7, 2022 was plagued by two key issues.

Almost immediately after production boards started to arrive to customers on March 9, 2022, reports began to come in from many individuals across Reddit, Instagram, and Facebook reporting their new Onewheel GT had arrived dead on arrival (aka “DOA”.)

Further aggravating the issue, Future Motion, Inc. ships boards in the order they receive orders; logically, all of these early reports of DOA were from the most enthusiastic customers who had placed their orders on or nearest to the initial announcement on October 27, 2021.

Future Motion, Inc.’s warranty provides no-cost coverage for boards arriving DOA, however, they operate only a single service center located in California. When accounting for communication, shipping, and service turnaround times, this left those enthusiastic customers without their new boards—which they would have had to have pre-ordered months in advance—for an additional several days or weeks. Community reports of DOA boards drop significantly after the first several weeks of production in March 2022, so the vast majority of orders would have been unaffected.

Another key issue for early production models of the Onewheel GT was “ghosting”, where the footpad sensor remains active after a rider leaves the board, causing the board to stay engaged and drive away as if a “ghost” is riding it. This unintended behavior poses a serious risk to persons and property as the board will accelerate to its top capable speed (roughly 30 mph) and continue traveling until the board topples over or the sensor recognizes the error.

The “ghosting” issue became so widespread, that on August 11, 2022, Future Motion and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled thousands of GT footpads.