Hacked scooters raise safety risks and liability questions

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Michael J. Epstein//November 17, 2025//

The basics:

• Teens increasingly hack electric scooters to override speed limits
• Modified scooters pose serious safety hazards to riders and pedestrians
• Legal liability may extend to parents and scooter manufacturers
• Experts urge stronger engineering safeguards and clearer regulations

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Motorized scooters were marketed to us as a clean, efficient, futuristic answer to short trips. They’re small, portable and supposedly safe — limited by design to reasonable top speeds. But what happens when that “design” is hacked? Increasingly, teens are modifying scooter wiring, overriding the built-in speed restrictions, and transforming what was meant to be a sidewalk-friendly ride into a high-velocity hazard.

It’s a modern twist on a very old problem: give kids access to technology, and some will figure out how to push it beyond its intended limits. Only this time, the consequences aren’t confined to glitchy iPhones or broken PlayStations. This time, it’s about 50-pound machines capable of reaching speeds they were never designed to safely handle — and ridden by minors with little or no training.

Videos circulate on TikTok and YouTube showing step-by-step tutorials on “unlocking” scooter speed governors. Often all it takes is cutting or re-routing a wire. The barrier to entry is shockingly low, and the perceived reward – going from 15 mph to 25 or 30 – feels like a thrill.

But one thing that I’ve learned as a lawyer who represents people who have been injured by these scooters is engineering matters. A lot.

A scooter designed to travel 15 mph has brakes, wheels and frames calibrated for 15 mph. At double that speed, everything – from the stopping distance to the balance point – is compromised. The machines quite literally weren’t built to survive the very modifications kids are eager to make. When they fail, they don’t just scrape knees. They can cause life-altering injuries, or worse.

The age of hacks

The legal questions come fast and sharp: if a minor on a modified scooter collides with a pedestrian, injuring or even killing them, who is responsible?

At first glance, the liability seems to rest squarely with the rider — or, because we’re dealing with minors, their parents. Parents are legally responsible for the acts of their children, and operating a modified scooter at unsafe speeds falls into the same bucket as driving a family car recklessly.

But there’s another layer. Manufacturers design these scooters in ways that make modification surprisingly easy. Wires aren’t hidden. Speed-limiting chips aren’t tamper-resistant. Companies know teenagers will be a big segment of their user base, yet many have not taken basic steps to make hacking more difficult. That raises a fair question: are scooter companies enabling this activity?

Under product liability law, a manufacturer can be held responsible if a product is unreasonably dangerous in its foreseeable use. Companies may argue that tampering voids warranties and shifts responsibility entirely onto the user. But when tampering is as easy as a quick internet search and a five-minute wiring job, is it really unforeseeable?

“Under product liability law, a manufacturer can be held responsible if a product is unreasonably dangerous in its foreseeable use.”

Think of it this way: if automakers sold cars with governors that could be disabled by removing a single fuse, and teenagers predictably did so, courts would have little patience for the “not our fault” defense. Why should scooters be treated differently?

Product liability law has evolved around the principle that safety features should not be so fragile that the average consumer – or in this case, the average curious teenager – can simply bypass them. By designing scooters in ways that practically invite tampering, companies are exposing not just riders, but everyone around them, to avoidable danger.

The stakes are not theoretical. Hospitals are already reporting rises in scooter-related injuries, many involving young riders traveling at speeds that don’t align with factory specifications. The victims aren’t just riders — they’re pedestrians struck on sidewalks, cyclists blindsided at intersections, and drivers swerving to avoid sudden, erratic scooter movement.

Here in cities around New Jersey and especially in New York, we’ve all learned that a 30-mph scooter in the hands of a 14-year-old is no less dangerous than a motorcycle in the hands of an unlicensed adult. Yet unlike motorcycles, scooters require no license, no training, and, in many jurisdictions, no insurance.

Where the law must go

We need a multi-layered response and we need it now, because these scooters aren’t going away anytime soon.

First, scooter manufacturers must accept that hacking is foreseeable and engineer against it. Tamper-resistant chips, hidden wiring and software safeguards are not science fiction. They are already standard in industries like automobiles and aviation. The fact that scooter companies haven’t universally adopted them suggests that safety is being sacrificed at the altar of cost-savings.

Second, lawmakers must close the gaps in regulation. Right now, scooters fall into a gray zone: not quite bicycles, not quite motorcycles. That regulatory ambiguity leaves victims in a dangerous lurch. At minimum, laws should set age restrictions, mandate helmet use and create liability frameworks that make clear where the buck stops when a modified scooter causes harm.

Finally, parents need to recognize the risks. Too often, scooters are purchased as a “safe” alternative to mopeds or cars. In reality, they can be just as dangerous — particularly when modified. Handing one over to a teenager without oversight is less a rite of passage than it is a gamble with public safety.

“Too often, scooters are purchased as a “safe” alternative to mopeds or cars. In reality, they can be just as dangerous …”

If past trends are any guide, the courts will soon be flooded with cases testing where liability lands. Plaintiffs’ lawyers will argue that manufacturers failed to anticipate the obvious, while defense lawyers will point fingers at riders and parents. Somewhere in between lies the truth: responsibility is shared, but not equally.

Scooter companies cannot pretend ignorance of how their products are being used — and misused. If hacking is foreseeable, then so too is the liability. And if the law is slow to catch up, juries will do what juries have always done: hold powerful companies to account when their business models place the public at risk.

Scooters aren’t toys anymore. When modified, they’re 30-mph weapons in the hands of children. We can’t rely on luck to protect pedestrians, cyclists and drivers from the consequences. Companies must design for reality, not just for the instruction manual. And until they do, liability will – and should – be knocking at their door.

Michael J. Epstein is a trial lawyer and managing partner of The Epstein Law Firm PA, based in New Jersey.