The Dangers of Hoverboards: A Cautionary Tale

As I reflect on my experience with hoverboards, I must admit that I was once fascinated by their sleek design and seemingly effortless motion. The idea of gliding effortlessly across the floor, without having to exert any physical effort, was certainly appealing. However, as I delved deeper into the world of hoverboards, I began to realize that they were not as safe as they seemed.

I had been given a hoverboard by someone, but I'm not sure who or how it ended up in my possession. At first, I was excited to try it out and see what all the fuss was about. But as soon as I started using it, I realized that there were some serious safety concerns. The thing could be a danger, potentially causing physical harm to myself or others. And with no regulations in place to govern their production, I knew that I had to be extremely careful.

The biggest concern with hoverboards is the lithium-ion battery that powers them. These batteries are notoriously unstable and can catch fire or explode if not handled properly. And because manufacturers often don't prioritize safety in their designs, it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt. In fact, I've seen videos of people riding these things and suddenly they just...explode. Parts fly everywhere, and it's a miracle that no one is seriously injured.

I'm not trying to freak anyone out, but the risks are real. And if you're considering getting your own hoverboard, I would strongly advise against it. The potential dangers are just too great. But I know that many people are still unaware of these risks and may be tempted to buy into the hype. So, do your research! Look up reviews from other users, check for safety certifications, and make sure you understand how the thing works before you take it home.

And let me tell you, I've seen some pretty shocking things in my time as a tech enthusiast. From exploding smartphones to faulty smartwatches, there are plenty of examples out there that demonstrate just how reckless some manufacturers can be. But hoverboards are particularly egregious because they're so popular and yet, so poorly designed.

I've even talked to Jerry about getting rid of his hoverboard, but he's not interested. He thinks they're cool and fun, and that's understandable. I mean, who wouldn't want to ride a hoverboard? It's like something out of a science fiction movie! But for me, the risks are just too great.

And then there's the issue of safety standards. Because airlines have started banning hoverboards due to safety concerns, it's clear that they're not safe enough for public use. And yet, many manufacturers continue to produce these things without any regard for safety. It's like they think people will never get hurt or that some kind of magic bullet will come along and fix all the problems.

As someone who values safety above all else, I have to say that I'm shocked by the lack of regulation in this industry. I mean, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should! There are plenty of examples out there where companies have pushed the boundaries too far and paid the price. And it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt.

iOS 9: What's New?

I was asked by Anthony Jones to share my thoughts on iOS 9, which I'm happy to do. As some of you may know, I've been working with Apple products for years, and I have to say that iOS 9 is a significant update. But what really caught my attention was the new features that Apple has introduced.

From what I've seen so far, iOS 9 seems like a solid update. There are plenty of new features that will appeal to power users, including improved multitasking capabilities and a more intuitive interface. And with the introduction of split-screen mode, it's now possible to have multiple apps open at the same time, which is a game-changer for productivity.

But what really stood out to me was Apple's focus on security in iOS 9. With the rise of malware and other online threats, it's more important than ever that our devices are secure. And Apple has done a great job of addressing this issue with a number of new features, including improved encryption and better protection against phishing attacks.

Of course, no update is perfect, and there are still some issues to work out. But overall, I'm very impressed with what Apple has accomplished with iOS 9. It's clear that they're committed to providing their users with the best possible experience, and I think this update is a big step in the right direction.

Become a Patron

If you want more tech insight from me every weekday, without ads or interruptions, then become one of my patrons! By supporting me on Patreon, you'll get access to exclusive content, including full TL DR episodes that can be up to an hour long or longer. You'll also get bonus content, such as behind-the-scenes stories and interviews with other tech enthusiasts.

As a patron, you'll also have the opportunity to shape the direction of my content and help me choose which topics I cover next. And because I'm committed to providing high-quality content that meets your needs, you can be sure that you're getting the best possible experience.

So why not join me on Patreon today? It's easy, and it would mean a lot to me if you did. By supporting me, you'll be helping to ensure that my content remains free from ads and interruptions, so that I can focus on providing you with the best possible experience. Thank you!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello world i'm chris pirillo and you tune into another law of addition of the Lockergnome daily reporter TL DR for short it's your daily dose of not just the news but answers that you can use it comes in three parts the first part is free for everybody am i answering a question as I do every single week day most days I answer a tech related question whether it's a gadget gizmo piece of software something you could do a tech it's usually tech related and then after I answer a question like today's question why our hoverboards illegal in some places I'm going to answer that question after that I'm going to be doing a AMA that's an ask me anything I know I do amaze every day on my twitch profile I don't know if you follow me on twitch but I'm trying to really well I'm not trying to have fun I am having fun I'm just trying to stream the fun for everybody on my twitter profile every day that a ma is just for the patrons however i'll answer tech questions after this question and then i'm going to talk about today's tech news so if you want to hear me talking about the tech news if you want to me to answer all the tech questions you could possibly think of you got to be a patron head over to chris pirillo com for more information on how to become a patron out yikes I seriously just triggered my funny bone okay uh as I continue to try to get feeling back in my pinky I've lost all feeling here let me go ahead and I'm going to move this out of the way this is my lego dimensions doctor who set with Peter Capaldi right there in cane k 9 i'm going to set that they're the reason why is because i have right here what they call hoverboard now let me tell you this is heavy it's got some weight to it you may have seen me ride a hoverboard very briefly in the vlog vlog refer and you saw Diana ride the hoverboard and kind of fall on her took us when she did that in the vlog I don't know if you watched that but it was fun it was fun to watch her do that I have the hover board or a hoverboard right here and I realized after Diana fell on her bum bum that for me to stand on this again i would first need to put on some kind of safety equipment you know like a helmet the elbow pads to keep me from bumping my funny bone again knee pads nut cup what would I don't know what protective equipment you're supposed to get either way I knew inevitably I was going to fall if I rode this again and I wrote it very very very very briefly ah so why are these illegal well here's the thing you can get your own hoverboard from a variety of places across the internet gonna tag jag calm / hoverboard is one place if you want but you have to ask yourself why are hoverboards it legal I'm going to explain this to you but if you want to do your own research I certainly recommend you do your own research let me put it to you this way I am looking to get rid of this possibly a giveaway of some kind i I'm good with this and here's why because they're effectively have billing no standards set forth and a lot of clones created you're done the Clone Wars have this hoverboard I'm sure works well I mean certainly it goes the challenge is finding a hopper board that's not going to land you in trouble so why are they illegal they're dangerous yes uh but more than that the problem is some of them are exploding some of them are catching fire the problem is the adapter that charges the battery inside of the hoverboard may not be certified meaning it doesn't know when to stop and it just keeps charging and in and so imagine just throwing as much electricity as you possibly can into a battery and not stopping the battery can only do so much and eventually the battery goes pow so today an airline as a matter of fact went as far as to ban hoverboards these apparently are already illegal in some areas of the world that i know of seattle or the seattle area has not made them illegal but I'm more than confident that at some point in the very near future they will likely be illegal so I'm basic looking to uh to get rid of mine and and some of you out there may be interested in the hoverboard that I have to give because I really am afraid it's going to you know pop if i decide to plug it in so i have not actually plugged it in I've not actually charged it up so it works you saw me write it but I don't want it because I'm afraid it's going to explode I am I am serious if certain I don't think this is fair and certainly in doubt there have been absolute Vidya posted showing you that these things can explode they can catch fire I'm going to go ahead and set my iPad pro which I don't think is going to explode on but I got the other day this one comes with another Capaldi dressed differently with a very nice Clara Oswald and not my doctor but matt smith and a Weeping Angel the Dalek I don't think really counts as a as a minifigure though it doesn't really just like canine canine really doesn't count as I don't expect this to explode ever I don't expect this to explode ever as a matter of fact let me hit play everybody if this explodes well you saw it happen live on the Internet hopefully it does not explode ah so I have on board but they're illegal because they're dangerous they can hurt you and others fires can happen because there are no standards and that's the reason why it's been kind of challenging not just to get hoverboard because they're available from a variety of vendors like for two months straight after vlogger fair I kept receiving random emails from companies out of China saying hey do you want to try our hoverboard do you want to try our overboard you want to try our hoverboard and I'm all like wow it's seemingly a lot of hoverboards I mean which one's the best one I don't know I don't have any answered the question I have not made a living from trying different hoverboards um this one was sent to me but I'm good I don't want to plug it in I don't want to play with it anymore and I want to get it completely off the premises I given it their illegal given that airlines are now banning them giving that their give another dangerous in general let me forget the safety issues I mean in terms of like your personal safety like a physically hurting yourself beyond a fire is what I'm trying to get to I forget about not feeling like you're going to fall it is a danger potentially and that's something that without any kind of regulation in place could hurt you without knowing and these things are very popular I can see me you know how much this thing could go for like 300 bucks yeah I've seen himself for more than that 300 is the lowest i've seen for these hoverboards maybe 200 maybe they're going lower but simpler such a demand like these companies keep churning them out but because there's no safety in in place there's no tripping mechanism specifically when it comes to charging or you know how much energy that battery is holding that lithium ion battery inside this machine it could be a danger a big danger that is why they're illegal now doesn't mean that I'm holding on to something illegal because that i know of here in seattle or in the greater state of Washington these are not illegal but they may be where you live they may be so before you go out and get one number one to your research number two uh you may just think twice do your research I tell everybody that I mean I've got my own perspectives I got my own beliefs and I'm not the only one out there I'm not trying to freak anybody out but you need to be aware of this I want to hammer that point home so uh anybody want one of these here I got it right right here that's that great Oh Matt do you want it actually I don't think Matt can have it because it's illegal where Matt is oh that my friends is why they're illegal no standards and a danger it's at a mall here in Washington I want to be surprised if pretty soon they are illegal in Washington it exploded a guy recorded a video of this thing just popping and exploding parts were flying everywhere at them all I don't want that I should ask Jerry if he wants it like Jerry you are into dangerous things do you want it I should ask him I will in fact I'm gonna tweet him I'm gonna tweet him say you want my hoverboard dude I could text him right now if I I was so inclined ah that's the answer to the question that's why they're really going I'm sure they're you know even finer points but that's the the the the high-level overview of why they're illegal and likely will continue to be illegal just do your research folks I I don't think there is as hot as I once thought they were pretty neat it's a pretty cool sensation but uh safety is a number one feature in my book you know as far as I'm concerned I really don't i don't want to get things that may explode I mean granted yes bones have exploded in the past yes but generally speaking they don't it's been a different story when you've got manufacturers assembling these things and not having safety in mind just because you can do something doesn't mean you should Anthony Jones asks me and he must be watching online on YouTube live he is a patron he's asking if I have thoughts on iOS 9 point to yes I do and I'm going to share those with you right now but only because you're a patron and that's this part of TL DR when I talk about doing more tech talk that's the part just for patrons you can become a patron get even more tech talk from me every single week day head over to chris pirillo com if you want to join the chat you can as well that's on my twitch profile or via live pirillo com I basically rebooted it so if you missed the chat room you don't have to miss it but you have to subscribe to me on twitch I'm not I'm not gonna you know apologize for that you want to join the chat you can everybody's welcome you want to become a patron you can the two links to remember chris pirillo com and live pirillo com today's free podcast highlight was brought to you by all of my active patrons from chris pirillo com if you want access to the full TL DR episodes both audio video past present and future which can be up to an hour long or longer with even more tech insight from me every weekday plus other bonus content without ads and support me at the same time you can sign up to become one of my super noemi's to this is just a brief taste of what I'm producing for you daily again get more through chris pirillo comhello world i'm chris pirillo and you tune into another law of addition of the Lockergnome daily reporter TL DR for short it's your daily dose of not just the news but answers that you can use it comes in three parts the first part is free for everybody am i answering a question as I do every single week day most days I answer a tech related question whether it's a gadget gizmo piece of software something you could do a tech it's usually tech related and then after I answer a question like today's question why our hoverboards illegal in some places I'm going to answer that question after that I'm going to be doing a AMA that's an ask me anything I know I do amaze every day on my twitch profile I don't know if you follow me on twitch but I'm trying to really well I'm not trying to have fun I am having fun I'm just trying to stream the fun for everybody on my twitter profile every day that a ma is just for the patrons however i'll answer tech questions after this question and then i'm going to talk about today's tech news so if you want to hear me talking about the tech news if you want to me to answer all the tech questions you could possibly think of you got to be a patron head over to chris pirillo com for more information on how to become a patron out yikes I seriously just triggered my funny bone okay uh as I continue to try to get feeling back in my pinky I've lost all feeling here let me go ahead and I'm going to move this out of the way this is my lego dimensions doctor who set with Peter Capaldi right there in cane k 9 i'm going to set that they're the reason why is because i have right here what they call hoverboard now let me tell you this is heavy it's got some weight to it you may have seen me ride a hoverboard very briefly in the vlog vlog refer and you saw Diana ride the hoverboard and kind of fall on her took us when she did that in the vlog I don't know if you watched that but it was fun it was fun to watch her do that I have the hover board or a hoverboard right here and I realized after Diana fell on her bum bum that for me to stand on this again i would first need to put on some kind of safety equipment you know like a helmet the elbow pads to keep me from bumping my funny bone again knee pads nut cup what would I don't know what protective equipment you're supposed to get either way I knew inevitably I was going to fall if I rode this again and I wrote it very very very very briefly ah so why are these illegal well here's the thing you can get your own hoverboard from a variety of places across the internet gonna tag jag calm / hoverboard is one place if you want but you have to ask yourself why are hoverboards it legal I'm going to explain this to you but if you want to do your own research I certainly recommend you do your own research let me put it to you this way I am looking to get rid of this possibly a giveaway of some kind i I'm good with this and here's why because they're effectively have billing no standards set forth and a lot of clones created you're done the Clone Wars have this hoverboard I'm sure works well I mean certainly it goes the challenge is finding a hopper board that's not going to land you in trouble so why are they illegal they're dangerous yes uh but more than that the problem is some of them are exploding some of them are catching fire the problem is the adapter that charges the battery inside of the hoverboard may not be certified meaning it doesn't know when to stop and it just keeps charging and in and so imagine just throwing as much electricity as you possibly can into a battery and not stopping the battery can only do so much and eventually the battery goes pow so today an airline as a matter of fact went as far as to ban hoverboards these apparently are already illegal in some areas of the world that i know of seattle or the seattle area has not made them illegal but I'm more than confident that at some point in the very near future they will likely be illegal so I'm basic looking to uh to get rid of mine and and some of you out there may be interested in the hoverboard that I have to give because I really am afraid it's going to you know pop if i decide to plug it in so i have not actually plugged it in I've not actually charged it up so it works you saw me write it but I don't want it because I'm afraid it's going to explode I am I am serious if certain I don't think this is fair and certainly in doubt there have been absolute Vidya posted showing you that these things can explode they can catch fire I'm going to go ahead and set my iPad pro which I don't think is going to explode on but I got the other day this one comes with another Capaldi dressed differently with a very nice Clara Oswald and not my doctor but matt smith and a Weeping Angel the Dalek I don't think really counts as a as a minifigure though it doesn't really just like canine canine really doesn't count as I don't expect this to explode ever I don't expect this to explode ever as a matter of fact let me hit play everybody if this explodes well you saw it happen live on the Internet hopefully it does not explode ah so I have on board but they're illegal because they're dangerous they can hurt you and others fires can happen because there are no standards and that's the reason why it's been kind of challenging not just to get hoverboard because they're available from a variety of vendors like for two months straight after vlogger fair I kept receiving random emails from companies out of China saying hey do you want to try our hoverboard do you want to try our overboard you want to try our hoverboard and I'm all like wow it's seemingly a lot of hoverboards I mean which one's the best one I don't know I don't have any answered the question I have not made a living from trying different hoverboards um this one was sent to me but I'm good I don't want to plug it in I don't want to play with it anymore and I want to get it completely off the premises I given it their illegal given that airlines are now banning them giving that their give another dangerous in general let me forget the safety issues I mean in terms of like your personal safety like a physically hurting yourself beyond a fire is what I'm trying to get to I forget about not feeling like you're going to fall it is a danger potentially and that's something that without any kind of regulation in place could hurt you without knowing and these things are very popular I can see me you know how much this thing could go for like 300 bucks yeah I've seen himself for more than that 300 is the lowest i've seen for these hoverboards maybe 200 maybe they're going lower but simpler such a demand like these companies keep churning them out but because there's no safety in in place there's no tripping mechanism specifically when it comes to charging or you know how much energy that battery is holding that lithium ion battery inside this machine it could be a danger a big danger that is why they're illegal now doesn't mean that I'm holding on to something illegal because that i know of here in seattle or in the greater state of Washington these are not illegal but they may be where you live they may be so before you go out and get one number one to your research number two uh you may just think twice do your research I tell everybody that I mean I've got my own perspectives I got my own beliefs and I'm not the only one out there I'm not trying to freak anybody out but you need to be aware of this I want to hammer that point home so uh anybody want one of these here I got it right right here that's that great Oh Matt do you want it actually I don't think Matt can have it because it's illegal where Matt is oh that my friends is why they're illegal no standards and a danger it's at a mall here in Washington I want to be surprised if pretty soon they are illegal in Washington it exploded a guy recorded a video of this thing just popping and exploding parts were flying everywhere at them all I don't want that I should ask Jerry if he wants it like Jerry you are into dangerous things do you want it I should ask him I will in fact I'm gonna tweet him I'm gonna tweet him say you want my hoverboard dude I could text him right now if I I was so inclined ah that's the answer to the question that's why they're really going I'm sure they're you know even finer points but that's the the the the high-level overview of why they're illegal and likely will continue to be illegal just do your research folks I I don't think there is as hot as I once thought they were pretty neat it's a pretty cool sensation but uh safety is a number one feature in my book you know as far as I'm concerned I really don't i don't want to get things that may explode I mean granted yes bones have exploded in the past yes but generally speaking they don't it's been a different story when you've got manufacturers assembling these things and not having safety in mind just because you can do something doesn't mean you should Anthony Jones asks me and he must be watching online on YouTube live he is a patron he's asking if I have thoughts on iOS 9 point to yes I do and I'm going to share those with you right now but only because you're a patron and that's this part of TL DR when I talk about doing more tech talk that's the part just for patrons you can become a patron get even more tech talk from me every single week day head over to chris pirillo com if you want to join the chat you can as well that's on my twitch profile or via live pirillo com I basically rebooted it so if you missed the chat room you don't have to miss it but you have to subscribe to me on twitch I'm not I'm not gonna you know apologize for that you want to join the chat you can everybody's welcome you want to become a patron you can the two links to remember chris pirillo com and live pirillo com today's free podcast highlight was brought to you by all of my active patrons from chris pirillo com if you want access to the full TL DR episodes both audio video past present and future which can be up to an hour long or longer with even more tech insight from me every weekday plus other bonus content without ads and support me at the same time you can sign up to become one of my super noemi's to this is just a brief taste of what I'm producing for you daily again get more through chris pirillo com\n"