Every now and again Future Motion sends out a survey to riders to collect information about preferences, community requests and general research.
On October 29th 2022 Future Motion sent out it’s survey to Onewheel riders on its email list, myself included.
In this survey there were a few questions and optional answers worth writing about, here are my highlights:
To which degree do you agree with the following statement?
“I understand the risks inherent in riding Onewheel.”
This was interesting to me because I know Future Motion is always dealing with lawsuits from people who ride, in fact I just saw an ad the other day from a lawyer trying to drum up more interest in suing future motion for the “inherent danger” a Onewheel presents.
So it’s interesting to me that Future Motion is trying to gauge how it’s riders feel about this danger.
For the record, I think living and breathing is dangerous, fun is often some degree of dangerous. So whatever, don’t be an idiot, is that really such bad advice?
Select the product developments you feel that Onewheel should prioritize
There were a couple of interesting options in here:
Lower price
The fact that this is an option is super interesting to me.
I think if they could offer a more entry level model at a lower price, that would be a huge win from a marketing and growth perspective.
Lowering the barrier to entry is a great way to get more users.
Riding specialization
I really like the idea that we could get either boards or mods that are specially built for trick or off road riding.
The Float Life is already very much exploring this, but I think the boards would need to be build a little different because the trick riding the guys at TFL do really beats up and sometimes breaks their boards, so that’s certainly something I’d like to see resolved.
Variable Model Size
I really like the idea of a larger or smaller Onewheel for portability or flying with a Onewheel that’s got a smaller battery or who knows what you could do with a bigger one.
I love the idea all together.
Modularity and Customization
This one is one of the most interesting to me, and again The Float Life is really already doing a lot of this, but the idea that I could have more control over the board itself, how it rides, looks, feels and what it can do is super interesting to me.
How do you feel Onewheel could improve its after-sales support the most?
This is a very interesting sign, coupled with their comments on their most recent podcast with Jimmy Chang from Freshly Charged.
The right to repair debate has been very top of mind, not just for Onewheel riders, but for iPhones and electronics in general.
For the record, I’m very pro right to repair, but I do recognize the complications and difficulties of enacting systems and repair centers when you have a product that when poorly repaired could lead to injury or death.
It’s a tricky space, and I recognize that.
It’s solvable in time, but tricky.
All this said, repair centers, or selling parts to riders for self repair are both super interesting ways to solve this problem and they’re definitely avenues I’d support.
Are there any other products you would like to see us develop in the future?
This one is interesting for a lot of reasons.
I said yes to basically everything because at the end of the day I do think Future Motion is a very solid company and the products they produce are incredibly high quality, so sure I’d love to see an ebike or or escooter.
Sign me up.
Conclusion
I’d say overall this bodes pretty well for the future of Onewheel’s and PEVs.
The fact the Future Motion is thinking about these topics and asking for community input is a huge huge win.
I’ve worked for, worked with and see companies do things a lot worse, and truly at the end of the day this type of survey makes me believe that Future Motion is run by well intentioned people, not just corporate, faceless money leeches.
They truly want what’s best for the community, but they also have investors to please and a business to run, so you can’t do it all perfectly, if you can do any of it at all.
I see the current state as good and getting better, things could be much worse.
The future of Future Motion and PEVs is bright, and I’m here for it.
