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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.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
