Technological Failures

One of the hottest gift trends of the 2015 Holiday Season literally went up in flames, as faulty lithium-ion batteries in some brands of motorized self-balancing scooters, popularly called hoverboards, caused them to ignite or even explode. While the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) worked to document, explain, and educate the public about the dangers of hoverboards, airlines banned them on passenger flights and the U.S. Postal Service stopped shipping them by air. Retail outlets including Amazon and Target also temporarily suspended hoverboard sales. Although lithium-ion batteries are generally smaller, lighter, and last longer than other batteries, and strict safety standards have been enacted for most products that use them, hoverboard standards were not yet complete when demand for...