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US laws can't keep pace with the latest fad - hoverboards

Published Thu, Nov 26, 2015 · 09:50 PM

    Mill Valley, California

    THEY are this year's must-have holiday item, coveted by children and adults alike. Retailers are promoting them heavily online and on catalogue covers, and they are an increasingly common sight on city streets across America. But in many places - from New York state to individual schools, malls and stores - they are illegal.

    Self-balancing motorised boards have many names: hoverboards, Swagways, self-balancing scooters and, among the Star Trek crowd, personal transporters. But whatever they are called, they now have parents, lawmakers and others struggling to figure out how safe they are and how to regulate them, because in most places the rules have not caught up with the new technology.

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