- I'm Becca Farsace with The Verge, and this is a Dot board.
It's a modular electric skateboard,
and y'all, it's kinda sick.
(upbeat music)
There are three models of Dot boards.
The Compact, the Cruiser, and the Transporter.
All of the boards are made of a composite of maple,
V.ply, and fiberglass.
The Compact and Cruiser rock pinstripe decks
with kick tails, while the Transporter
is a wood grain drop through.
Each board also has two rear red lights
that act as brake lights.
All right, first, the Compact.
It starts at $1,279, and the main advantage here
is its size and weight,
with the disadvantage being its range.
You have the option of one or two motors,
with the second motor costing an extra $170.
The speed maxes out at 18 miles per hour,
and it can get up to 12 miles of range.
This board whips, and it's super easy to carry.
But for full range, speed, and comfort,
with the con being weight, Dot offers the Transporter.
This board starts at 1,599,
and it is absolutely the Cadillac of the Dot lineup.
She whips, she whips!
If you pop those 120 millimeter wheels on,
it feels like you're riding on a damn cloud.
I got real comfortable, real fast going really quick.
You can get up to 24 miles per hour on this thing,
and max out at 24 miles of range, which is insane.
You give up portability though.
I mean, this thing is huge and it is heavy.
Carrying this would be a pain,
it's definitely an A to B board with no stops in between.
Now the Cruiser sits right in between the Compact
and the Transporter.
It starts at 1,299, with a max speed
of 18 miles an hour, and 18 miles of range.
I think this is the sweet spot
in terms of sizes for electric skateboards.
I mean, number one, I just have a wider stance on a board,
so I appreciate that extra room, but also,
if I had to get on the subway,
I could easily pick this up and take it with me
without it being a huge hassle.
The remote is a little different.
So you have an acceleration and a brake on the back side.
I found myself using my pointer finger and my middle finger
to accelerate and my ring finger and my pinky to brake.
The remote definitely took some getting used to,
and I was often afraid of accelerating
when I meant to brake.
And if you pair that with this board's quick acceleration
and quick braking, it's all just a little spooky.
But what I did love about the remote
was the tiny screen on it.
You can see a speedometer,
you can see how many miles you've gone in your trip,
you can change settings.
This board is also not waterproof,
it's definitely not made to be riding in the rain.
If it does get wet though,
it'll indicate on the remote that your motor is wet.
The unique thing these boards are doing though
is how customizable they are.
With each board, you have the option
of how many batteries you want
and on the two smaller boards,
you have the option of how many hub motors you want.
One motor will provide a 15% hill climb,
and two motors doubles that to a 30% hill climb.
Batteries each provide around six miles of range,
and each one will cost you an extra $200 per battery
that you add to your kit.
Motors are swappable via an Allen key
that is stored in the front truck,
and batteries just pop right on and off
by using the Allen key to unscrew them
from the top of the board.
I was able to change out the wheels
and the motors in under two minutes.
And batteries were just as easy.
Okay, so there is one big flaw with these boards,
and it's in its regenerative braking system.
Basically that means that when you're riding and you brake,
it's sending power back into the batteries,
which in theory is wonderful.
And Dot even says that when you charge your battery to 100%,
it actually caps the battery just a bit below that
so that if you brake when you start on a full battery,
well, it'll have room to send some power back.
The problem is, if you start at the top of a very large hill
with a full battery, like I did,
and you go down the hill, well,
when you get towards the bottom,
your brakes aren't gonna work anymore
because your battery's gonna be full.
So here's a video
of Phil and I quite literally riding off into the sunset.
(wind roaring)
Oh my god, it's not slowing down.
- Just hold the bra-- - And this is the moment
I saw my entire life flash before my eyes.
It felt like the worst speed wobble I've ever experienced.
Basically under my back foot,
it felt like the brakes were pulsing,
like they were attempting to brake,
but not actually braking.
And then that made my back leg start to wobble,
and then I looked at the remote,
and I was going 27 miles per hour.
And there's absolutely no way
I could have jumped off the board.
So overall, it was a terrifying experience.
This brings up a good point though.
When you're riding an electric skateboard,
there's like this false sense of confidence, right,
that like you can brake at any time,
you can accelerate at any time.
But the truth is,
if you wouldn't do it on a normal skateboard,
you probably shouldn't do it on an electric skateboard.
I did reach out to Dot about this issue,
and they responded by saying the remote will alert you
if you try to brake while the battery is full.
The alert will be a repeating haptic signal
on the remote and a low brakes message on that tiny screen.
But during my experience with the board,
I never received those messages, and even if I had,
I feel like they would've been too little too late.
Dot, please, please fix this.
(upbeat music)
So you could buy the base model of one of these boards
and say in a month or even a year,
update to two motors or add more batteries.
But that's also relying on Dot staying afloat in a market
that has seen companies come and go,
and also seen companies like Boosted
completely dominate the field.
But what Dot's doing is actually pretty unique.
I mean, skateboarding is about changing out your wheels,
your trucks, your deck,
and just being able to do it yourself.
And its really cool to see
that come to the electric rideables market.
(upbeat electric guitar music)
Woo!
(upbeat electric guitar music)