Hoverboards, also known as self-balancing electric scooters seem to be quite the rage these days. It has easily taken over the world by storm, grabbing the headlines here and there. However, as of late, there have been a series of fires that was caused by hoverboards. As such, Amazon has taken it upon themselves and started questioning hoverboard manufacturers about the safety standards that come with their products. At this time, the e-commerce giant appears to be removing some hoverboards from its marketplace.
"Many of the items detained and sent for testing have been found to have noncompliant plugs without fuses, which increases the risk of the device overheating, exploding or catching fire," the National Trading Standards says.
According to Swagway, which is one of the biggest sellers of hoverboards today, Amazon has sent out a notice to hoverboard listings to have them provide documentations that display the products it offers are compliant with the applicable safety standards such as UN 38.3 (battery), UL 16420 (battery) and UL 60950-1 (charger). Swagway further says that the products it is offering meet such certifications, and the company is also "happy" that Amazon is filtering out sellers who offer cheaper hoverboards that can, in turn, pose fire risks.
According to reports, several links to a number of hoverboards have started disappearing, including Swagway's listing of hoverboards as well as boards from other companies such as Phunkeeduck. Razor and Jetson's boards, however, are still up for orders, as well as other cheaper hoverboard offerings, but it still remains unclear as to why the listings are still up.
Hoveboards have been the hottest things as of late all thanks to celebrities including Justin Bieber, Jamie Foxx, Wiz Khalifa, Skrillex and Chris Brown trotting around on self-balancing scooters. And with that being the case, hoverboards now call for more scrutiny for safety reasons.
