Science

Watch Yet Another Hoverboard Explode on Camera

This one burned up before its maiden hover.

by Nick Lucchesi

We know why hoverboards explode, but that hasn’t stopped it from happening, and a new video shows just how quickly and violently these things go up in flames when powered by a cheaply made, dangerous battery.

Uploaded by BuleBritish, a YouTube user whose mission is to “explore Indonesia through the perspective of a foreigner,” writes that he was “trying to tilt it forward to start it moving but nothing was happening. It seemed to be dead.”

“I thought I must be doing it wrong. I will keep trying,” he writes in the YouTube video.

Then it explodes in a burst of flame and he says off camera, “What the hell? Jeeeesus Christ.” He then cooly walks over and pours water over the still-smoking hoverboard from a tea kettle.

“Well no wonder you’re not allowed with them on flights, Jesus Christ,” he says before pouring a little more water on the thing. “You can see that, I think it’s still on fire in there, it’s uh, smoldering. Basically this is brand-new, I’ve just charged it last night and I can smell melting. I went to try it out and that happened.”