Onewheel is a self-balancing single wheel electric board-sport, recreational personal transporter, often described as an electric skateboard. Unlike the electric unicycle, the riders feet are typically pointed at a perpendicular angle to the wheel and direction of travel. Onewheel was invented by Kyle Doerksen, the CEO and founder of Future Motion Inc. Future Motion Inc. is headquartered in Santa Cruz, CA with manufacturing of the Onewheel in San Jose, CA. The product has been featured in publications such as CNET, Sports Illustrated, Business Insider, and Popular Mechanics. Four models have been released since 2014:
Original Onewheel
Onewheel+
Onewheel+ XR
Onewheel Pint
History
The Onewheel was invented by Future Motion Inc. founder and CEO, Kyle Doerksen. Doerksen holds multiple engineering degrees from Stanford University. Doerksen spent 8 years creating Onewheel prototypes before starting Future Motion Inc. in 2013. Doerksen founded Future Motion Inc. in 2013 and launched Onewheel on Kickstarter on January 6, 2014. The Kickstarter exceeded its campaign goal of $100,000 and reached over $630,000 by January 27, 2014. Future Motion Inc. was first headquartered in Mountain View, California, in 2013. In 2015 Future Motion Inc. moved its headquarters to Santa Cruz, California and operated out of the . In 2018 it moved to a facility within Santa Cruzcity limits.
Onewheel models
Operation
The Onewheel is ridden by mounting the board with rear foot first and then placing the front foot on the pad pressing both sensors on the left and right side of front footpad. When the rider comes to level, the motor will engage and begin self-balancing. The Onewheel will accelerate forward when the rider leans forward and decelerate when the rider leans back. Turning is accomplished similarly to a skateboard or snowboard. Leaning the body toward toe or heel side of the board will cause the board to track side to side. Dismounting the Onewheel is accomplished by slowing to a stop and lifting the heel of the front foot off the sensor pad. This disengages the motor and the rear of the board can be lowered to the ground allowing the rider to step off the board. The Onewheel Pintmodel has an additional dismounting mode called Simplestop. With Simplestop engaged, the rider only needs to slow to a stop and then slowly roll back and the board will disengage, allowing the rider to dismount. When the board tilts backwards against the volition of the rider, it is known as push-back. When the front of the board hits the ground, it is known as nose-dive. Contrary to popular belief, push-back is not a built in speed limiter: The board's system does this to warn the rider that they are about to reach the maximum safe speed. The speed at which this happens can be affected by several factors including but not limited to battery %, grade of terrain, speed, tire pressure and rider weight. If the rider chooses to ignore this warning and continues to accelerate, the board will not be able to output enough power to both accelerate and keep the rider balanced, resulting in the motor disengaging and the front of the board hitting the ground. All Onewheels are usable independently of a smartphone, however, riders can use Bluetooth to connect to the Onewheel App with which the user can make changes to different functions of the Onewheel. The Onewheel App has been through many iterations and was first released alongside the Onewheel Original in 2014 for Android and iOS. The app allows the user to be able to monitor their Onewheel, and change the way it rides.
Race for the Rail – As part of the GoPro Mountain Games, Future Motion Inc. hosted their own annual Onewheel competition named "Race to the Rail". The first competition took place in 2017 and was most recently held in Northstar, Lake Tahoe.
