They are blamed for hundreds of visits to emergency rooms, banned from airplanes for bursting into flames, and no longer sold at some stores.
Better described as self-balancing electric scooters, they're part Segway, part skateboard and called hoverboards, even though they don't hover.
They're a popular challenge for their new owners and particularly with college athletes. Many players acknowledge that they own one, and others have used someone else's. They are really $350 electric skateboards.
College athletic directors quoted in USA Today say there is a virtual inevitability that some high-profile college athlete is going to have a hoverboard accident that could end his season, or end his or her sports career.
A recent round of hoverboard-related horror stories has caught the attention of some players who rushed to buy one. Michigan State football receiver R.J. Shelton says, "They're fun, but obviously a danger. I didn't want to have to say, "Yeah, I was on a hoverboard and fell." He doesn't want to get hurt.
Michigan State safety Montae Nicholson uses his to get around campus at about 6 mph. He says there is the injury factor, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to keep your balance. You lean forward to go forward or lean backward, or to the left or the right to go in that direction. It depends on where you put foot pressure.
Easy. But as many emergency room patients will tell you, you have to be endowed with good coordination, and be paying attention, not goofing off.
Put all that together, and there's a chance that you won't end up in the hospital. That includes many parents.