Amazon grounds hoverboards amid rising safety concerns

Hoverboards, one of the hottest tech trends of the year, are under fire. Online retailer Amazon has decided to remove the product from its store due to several recent cases of the boards catching fire.

The self-balancing scooters, which run on batteries, have been in a spate of accidents. In last few weeks, there have been close to 10 reported cases of hoverboards exploding across the United States.

One such incident occurred in a shopping complex in Washington State. After a hoverboard caught fire, shoppers evacuated the mall.

As per Swagway, which is a major seller of the gadgets, Amazon sent out notices to makers. The online store has also asked manufacturers to conform to safety regulations. As of Tuesday, Amazon had pulled most hoverboards being sold on its store.

Experts believe the fires are a result of poor quality of the rechargeable lithium ion batteries used in hoverboards, most of which are manufactured in China.

How these safety issues will affect the hoverboard’s reputation as one of the most sought after tech toys of 2015 is yet to be seen.