Future Motion Onewheel skateboard; design defects, repair restrictions, litigation against 3rd parties

• Channel: Louis Rossmann
• Video: Unplugging the battery bricks the Onewheel GT - Future Motion is a horrible company, IMO
• Date: 2022-03-19
• Description:

👉 https://www.reddit.com/r/onewheel/comments/pyxob7/a_word_from_our_friends_at_jw_batteries_in/

👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKALUEoRd7E

👉 https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/nixing-fix-ftc-report-congress-repair-restrictions/nixing_the_fix_report_final_5521_630pm-508_002.pdf

👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaTFGrPyUoo

👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhuia0skrus

AI Disclaimer

The Summary and Transcription below were generated using artificial intelligence (AI). While efforts have been made to ensure accuracy and coherence, the following points should be noted:

• The transcript is machine-generated and is likely to contain inaccuracies, omissions, or misinterpretations due to the limitations of automated transcription technology.
• The summary, created using AI, is derived from this transcript and will likely not capture the nuances, tone, and context of the original content.
• Users should exercise caution and verify the information, considering the compounded limitations of two layers of AI processing.

AI Summary

The video discusses concerns about the company Future Motion and its handling of the Onewheel GT, specifically criticizing their restrictive practices and lack of support for right-to-repair. Key points include:

Right-to-Repair Issues:

Future Motion prevents users from repairing their own Onewheel GTs. Disconnecting the battery bricks the device, requiring it to be sent to the manufacturer for repair. The company claims this is for safety, but critics argue it's a deliberate attempt to control repairs.

Proprietary Restrictions:

The Onewheel GT includes proprietary parts like a unique charging port and specific tire sizes, making it harder to use third-party components. External batteries and other user modifications are disabled by software updates.

Legal and Ethical Concerns:

Future Motion sued third-party companies like JW Batteries, which offered solutions to bypass these restrictions, further stifling user autonomy. Under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), bypassing digital locks—even for repair—is illegal, complicating efforts to address these limitations.

Community Impact:

The restrictive practices harm international users by requiring devices to be shipped back to the U.S. for repairs. Critics urge affected customers to report the company to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for anti-consumer practices. Broader Implications: The presenter connects these issues to a larger debate about right-to-repair and manufacturer control, likening it to the restrictive practices of companies like Apple, but worse in this case.

The video ends with a call to action for users to fight back against these practices by filing complaints with the FTC and supporting third-party repair advocates.

Youtube auto-generated transcript:

in the united states we have something

called section 1201 of the dmca where if

you have a digital lock on something and

a company like jw electronics comes

along and actually breaks that digital

lock so that you can replace the battery

on something that you [ __ ] own you

know what happens

you could get sued you can get shut down

because that's literally against the law

right now if you wish to actually

modify your device

not to do something crazy illegal so

that you could replace the [ __ ]

battery

that is illegal in america hey everybody

how's it going i hope you're having a

lovely day i usually have a lovely

morning but today i'm being served a

side of seasonal affective disorder

courtesy of new hampshire weather and

one of the things that i'm learning from

my trips to both florida and the uae for

a couple of weeks is that honestly

i kind of like when it's sunny all the

time now those may not be the places

that i end up but when it's sunny all

the time and just night decent nice

weather uh you know you got the

occasional hurricane but you don't wake

up to this whole serving of seasonal

affective disorder as often as you do

here and it really does something for

your mood and i i'm happy that i rent it

here rather than purchasing here because

as beautiful as the state as much as i

love the lakes and the mountains and the

natural beauty of many of the region the

areas

the weather can really screw with your

mood after a while if you know what i'm

saying so today what i'd like to discuss

is a company that i believe is even

worse than apple when it comes to right

to repair right to repair is the idea

that when you purchase something you own

it you should be able to fix your own

stuff without the manufacturer getting

in your way and there are many ways that

the manufacturer gets in your way and in

my opinion this manufacturer gets in

your way way worse than apple ever could

i talk about apple products on this

channel and the repeatability of them

because i have a store that fixes apple

products it's relevant to me and i'm

also an expert in that area so i can

cite the specific ways that they do

specific things that in my opinion have

there's just no good reason for but i

don't talk about a lot of other

companies because i'm not an expert in

those companies but from time to time

people will email me or reach out and

point out things that they think are

worthy of discussing on the channel and

i most certainly think this is i think

this is worse than anything that apple's

ever done the company i'm talking about

is future motion and they make something

called the one wheel or the onewheel

plus this is about a five or a

six-year-old model pictured here and

it's just one of these little scooter

boards that you can use to get around

and they're pretty decent at getting

around you know the they have decent

range they don't have any emissions even

if it's powered off of electricity that

comes from fossil fuels it's still way

better than an electric car when it

comes to emissions you're probably going

to get 10 to 30 watt hours a mile on

this when you're probably going to be

getting you know 150 to 350 watt hours a

mile in a tesla or mustang rocky so it's

still much more efficient than an

electric car you get to travel above

ground rather than deal with public

transportation in new york city where

you're traveling below ground in a dark

depressing rat infested subway so it's

going to be better for your mood and

above all it's very portable you can

just carry it up with you into your

apartment they're nice little tools i

see people use them on a regular basis

and while i personally prefer electric

bicycles i think this is a fine way to

get around it's a modern way to get

around and if you're sick and tired of

trains and buses that are always late or

dark depressing subway tunnels or

waiting in traffic two hours because it

never moves this is a great way to get

around now the problem here is the way

they make them so what you saw pictured

as a six-year-old model which was

actually a pretty good model you could

add batteries using ego two batteries

you could have a fender on a

with a battery on it you could have a

battery in your backpack you could

replace them with ego batteries when

they died and it's it was a very um

user-friendly device when it came to

maintenance the battery is obviously

going to be the item on this that wears

the quickest because it's again it's

guaranteed to die there is no such thing

as a battery that is going to last

forever in 2018 they announced the model

that uses nmc batteries which last a

little bit longer and here's where the

problems start to begin hardware

revision 4208 blocks charging to the

charge port hardware revision 4210

blocked external batteries with the app

open so you have to power cycle the

device if you open the application

hardware revision 4212 blocks external

batteries and apps that display voltage

readings or cell readings it also pairs

the controller board to the bms so if

you have an issue you are screwed they

have one repair center in the u.s

one one headquarter so if you need work

done overseas you're kind of screwed

you're shipping back this thing that

while you know light enough to carry up

to your apartment is really really heavy

for international shipping and massively

inconvenient now someone came out with a

chip that would allow you to use other

batteries with this and match the

controller to another bms which sounds

great but we'll get to that in a moment

they changed the motor rim size on this

from 6 to 6.5 inches so that if you want

a tire change it has to go back to the

us and their tires suck they're not as

good as the ones you can get from huzio

or burris the stator size has not been

changed the motor is of equal power as

there was before so there's no point to

it a bigger rim means less air between

it so you're more likely to get a

damaged rim and you cannot use the

readily available tires they have made a

proprietary charging port but above all

if you disconnect the battery from the

bms you get an error message telling you

to send the device back to the company

that's right simply unplug the bfs and

plugging it back in will cause the

device to brick itself

you must then send it back and i have a

screenshot over here that i want to

share with you of this being discussed

and what it says so this is from this is

absolutely disgusting so here it says

corrupted memory please contact customer

support so if you

unplug

the battery from the bms and then just

plug it back in that's it you do no

modification to it whatsoever the board

is now bricked it must be sent back to

the us and it must be serviced by the

manufacturer that's your only choice

the battery is aware item there is no

device on planet earth that has a

battery that is going to last forever

every single one of these will

eventually have a dead battery which

means that there is a 100 chance 100

that you will require the manufacturer

for service because they have designed

this device which costs over two

thousand dollars in a way where if

anything like this ever happens you need

to go back to them i would like to read

a post that i suggest if you own this

scooter you follow the instructions in

it says here

tldr your gt is booby-trapped report

them to the ftc for it hey everyone

owner of atloshop here with a request

from gt owners who plan to maintain

their board themselves either because

you are handy or you know batteries

eventually die and need replacing or as

a shop owner who repairs your local

riders boards or maybe if it is just

plain unfeasible to send your board to

future motion for them to do all repairs

as you may have heard already if the gt

battery is unplugged from your bms your

board will get a corrupted memory error

future mosher claims this is for safety

however congress has already said safety

is not of being a legitimate concern to

not advance right to repair so future

motion is doing this under the guise of

safety isn't an excuse also jw has a

very telling message from one of the

future motion lawyers to him saying that

they will continue to do everything in

their power to prevent third-party

repair and modifications please if you

have purchased the gt and you intend to

maintain it yourself or sending it back

to future motion just as unfeasible for

you then i urge you to file a complaint

with the ftc they will ask how much you

paid when you bought it who the company

is and what the problem is go to report

now and then select other please keep it

factual the issue here is a purposeful

booby trap of your board to prevent you

from changing a normal wear item not

just the battery but if the bms were to

get damaged as well thank you to

everyone i hope atlo shop and other sls

shops will continue to be able to

support your love for floating in the

coming years and the website is report

fraud.ftc.gov

that is

reportfraud.ftc

and i highly suggest that anybody that

has purchased this product that wishes

to have the ability to either choose who

repairs it or repair it themselves when

a wear item like a battery dies that

they do it this costs twenty two hundred

dollars so if you live in a country that

they don't send boards to that they

don't provide service to

you're [ __ ] you just wasted twenty two

hundred dollars you literally just took

that twenty two hundred dollars and put

it into a paper shredder now one thing

that's important to understand here is

that they are saying that they're doing

this for for your safety for your safety

this is all for you just to keep you

safe and the ftc had come out with a

report that we went over on this channel

a while ago called mixing the fix and we

read the entire thing here on a video it

came out over a year ago and there were

some really important points that came

out in this report in the ftc's words

manufacturers provided no empirical

evidence to support their concerns about

reputational harm or potential liability

resulting from faulty third-party

repairs a senator in this ftc report was

talking about vehicles and he said and i

quote the security and safety issues we

heard earlier today were similar to what

we heard during the vermont legislative

task force and to me the arguments are

largely bogus and they fall apart when

we think about motor vehicles i think we

would all agree an automobile is one of

the more dangerous products that we own

and we control to say that consumers

should not be permitted to take

electronics to a repair shop is

basically insisting that our cars have

to be repaired by the dealer we've

rejected this argument as a society and

this has to do with a ton of steel that

we're hurling down the road you know

we'd be wise to do the same thing when

it comes to lightweight electronics

heavy washing machines and everything in

between this comes from the ftc they

specifically said that there is no

evidence whatsoever when these

manufacturers have talked about safety

and security that they actually have any

examples where safety and security has

been compromised by a third party repair

yet they move ahead with it anyway and

the it's just the absolute disgusting

part of this it gets considerably worse

remember that company that i said that

came out with a chip that would actually

allow you to try and get around some of

the stuff like this

they're getting sued so check this out

so this is from jw batteries and we

wanted to make you all aware that we jw

batteries llc are being sued by future

motion for providing the community with

products to enhance their one wheel

experience why is future emotion going

after us we can only assume it's because

we're the little guy and they thought

we'd be an easy target we're not going

to be bullied into submission we have

obtained legal counsel and intent to

fight for all of us and our right to

decide what to do with the one wheels we

own this is not going to be easy on us

and the fight is very expensive but we

refuse to give in we are disappointed

that future motion has once again

decided to go after anyone that tries to

offer the community options for

enhancing their one-wheel experience we

greatly appreciate your love and support

as we fight for our rights to modify

products we legally own now something to

consider here is that many people have

said that well listen louis if you're

not able to do it it's not the company's

fault that you can't do a repair it's

not the company's fault that they hide

the chip from you that the company's

fault that they hide the schematic from

you it's not the company's fault that

they pair the device to in some way you

should be able to reverse engineer it

and if you're if you're not willing to

reverse engineer it then while you're

just being lazy you're just being stupid

you know why don't you just reverse

engineer well guess what they did and

you know what happened when they reverse

engineered it they're getting [ __ ] and

here's the thing in the united states we

have something called section 1201 of

the dmca where if you have a digital

lock on something and a company like jw

electronics comes along and actually

breaks that digital lock so that you can

replace the battery on something that

you [ __ ] own you know what happens

you can get sued you can get shut down

because that's literally against the law

right now if you wish to actually

modify your device

not to do something crazy illegal so

that you could replace the [ __ ]

battery

that is illegal in america a country

that came up with the flag don't tread

on me with a little snake or no step on

snack if you're from fort jam this

is happening in america this is an

american company doing this

and we just lie down and let it happen

every single day and every single day i

read the same thing in my comments louis

don't buy apple and it's solved lewis

don't buy apple and solve just don't buy

apple and solve as if every single other

company is not following in the exact

same footsteps you know and there's this

thing that people say about boiling the

frog where it's kind of like being a

frog in water and where you just slowly

boil it and the frog stays in and then

he dies

and there are people that will point out

that that's actually a fallacy if you

were to do that to a frog if you were to

slowly boil the water that's [ __ ]

the frog actually hops out but that's

just an urban legend so if it is true

that even the frog with its tiny frog

brain is able to jump out of the pot

then why don't we

why don't we