Review: Cyrusher Ripple electric snowboard actually works! (mostly)
Crusher, a Chinese company known for its burly electric bikes, surprised many in the snowboarding community when it announced its electric snowboard in December. Part snowboard and part snowmobile/e-skateboard/scooter, the Cyrusher Ripple mounts a jagged 3kW hub motor-wheel in a rear hole on a snowboard and puts the battery in a backpack that the rider must wear. Cyrusher states that the Ripple can go 30+ miles at speeds up to 30 miles per hour.
To our surprise, they actually had some review models and sent us one that we took up to Vermont to put through the paces. Would it actually work, and more importantly, would it be a fun form of transportation?
Cyrusher Ripple Setup
The Ripple came in a few boxes and is…heavy. The 156cm snowboard without the 11lb battery is a whopping 33lbs or 15kg, and all that weight is in the rear. The rear weight is jarring for someone used to carrying around a sub-10lb snowboard. This thing weighs as much as a mountain bike and is best carried with the rear wheel rolling on the ground.
It came without bindings, so I put on some old, traditional bindings I had on a snowboard I used about five years ago. I’ve ridden with Burton Step ons for almost five years, and if I had an extra set of those bindings, they would have been a much better experience. I’m also used to a longer 160cm snowboard, but 156 isn’t freakishly small for my 6′ 220lb frame.
The 635Wh battery is a big rectangular item about the size of a lunch box and must be placed in a backpack. The backpack battery situation isn’t any more awkward than putting on a backpack full of books, but you are already on a 33-pound snowboard. There’s a big wire with a spring that connects the battery and the Ripple, and that’s about all the assembly required. The battery came about half charged and, thankfully, uses a common e-bike 48V barrel battery charger.
There’s also a USB-A port that can be used to charge the controller simultaneously (my controller charger cable was missing). To turn on the system, you need to hit three buttons in order: First, the battery inside the backpack needs to be turned on, then the button on the snowboard, and then the handheld controller.
The controller is pretty interesting here and is in a gun-like shape that looks similar to some of the electric skateboard controllers I’ve used. It actually has a color display, speedometer, and battery indicator but in a font size that might not be legible through ski goggles, at speed, and in bright sunlight. It worked well for me in my limited testing while still, and frankly, I didn’t look down at it much while riding. Perhaps most interesting is that it not only accelerated the Ripple but it could also brake it too – which is helpful when a carving brake it way harder to do with the added rear weight.
Riding the Cyrusher Ripple
Cyrusher Ripple isn’t like a regular snowboard for obvious and non-obvious reasons. The use case is mostly cross-country riding or even some slight uphills. The huge extra weight in the back of that 3kW motor and controller actually keeps the wheel in the snow but also makes it really hard to carve, especially on the limited types of snow that the Ripple is made for. Cyrusher passed this cheat sheet on compatible snow and it is basically packed powder that it works best on. Wet snow is too sticky for the wheel to offset the static weight of the Rider/Ripple. Powder snow doesn’t provide enough traction for the wheel. You need the kind of groomed stuff you often find on Vermont mountains – but on flat land.
As I said before braking isn’t done by carving but by hitting the brakes on the wheel. Carving is limited to steering and it isn’t at all like a regular snowboard. One analog I can give is like riding a trike vs. a regular 2-wheeled bike.
As you can see in the video, my 100kg frame didn’t have luck on anything that wasn’t plowed already. My under 100lb son, however, was able to use it on a variety of surfaces and actually had a great experience on it. He’s also a competitive snowboarder and was able to turn and carve the thing, which in total was half his weight.
For him, this is a really fun toy, and he’s been showing it off to some of his snowboard buddies.
Cyrusher says you can climb 20% grade hills, and I think that’s probably the most optimistic of snow/rider combos. My son was able to climb slight gradients, but anything more than a few degrees would have the wheel spinning. For me, I was happy to get moving on flat land.
Electrek’s take:
I’ve often wondered what a powered snowboard would look like. I’ve even drawn up some ideas similar to this one, except the wheel is in between the feet like a One-wheel. Another idea is to make the integrated battery/motor removable and have paddles off the sides like a paddle boat. Or maybe just a jet fan to blow you across the snow like a paramotor?
But these are just pie-in-the-sky dreams, and Cyrusher actually made a powered snowboard happen! And the thing actually works!
That said, the limited types of snow and rider profiles where Ripple works as intended make it a lot less of an exciting reality. It is heavy, unwieldy, and, with the extra weight, harder to steer.
I think the appeal of this is for the tinkerer/hobbyist or that person who is addicted to snowboarding but lives in Kansas, where there are no hills. You might be able to use it as a personal snowmobile type of use case as well. Some folks will love this thing but I think it is a niche product.
But all great ideas had to start somewhere. And I do think this has “legs”. If Cyrusher, who are the leaders I the field since they are the only ones in the field, can cut about half the weight they will have a much better product. And, if it can, at the same time, make it better at grabbing more types of snow, I think you’d have a mass-market type of product here. Then make the motor sense if it is grabbing snow and slow down if it isn’t. Then maybe make the whole thing removable so you can take it off and go downhill when you want?
Then we’re getting somewhere.
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A Tesla Robotaxi ‘safety driver’ in San Francisco was caught on video sleeping in the middle of a drive with a customer.
The good news is that the system did wake him up, but certainly a bit late.
Tesla currently claims to be operating its ‘Robotaxi’ service in Austin, Texas, and the Bay Area in California.
However, the services differ widely across markets, mainly because California has significantly stricter autonomous-driving laws than Texas. It requires companies to prove they can operate as a level 4 autonomous driving system – something Tesla is not prepared to do, as it has yet to even apply for the required permit.
In effectiveness, it means Tesla’s ‘Robotaxi’ service in the Bay Area has ‘safety drivers’ in the driver’s seat, who are responsible for the vehicle at all times, just like any other level 2 ADAS system, such as Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving (Supervised)’.
In Austin, Tesla moved the ‘safety driver’ from the driver’s seat to the front passenger seat simply because regulators allow it. The monitor still has a finger on a killswitch at all times – ready to stop the vehicle.
We recently reported that Tesla has a worryingly high crash rate in Austin, with the safety driver in the passenger seat.
Now, in San Francisco, a Tesla Robotaxis ‘safety driver’ was spotted asleep at the wheel. A local Robotaxi user posted the video on Reddit:
The user wrote:
I took a Tesla Robotaxi in SF just over a week ago. I have used the service a few times before and it has always been great. I actually felt safer than in a regular rideshare.
This time was different. The safety driver literally fell asleep at least three times during the ride. Each time the car’s pay attention safety alert went off and the beeping is what woke him back up.
In the video, you can see that Tesla’s same FSD driver monitoring system appears to kick in during the Robotaxi ride and wakes up the safety driver.
However, the anti-drowsiness system is supposed to prevent this from happening and audibly warn the driver before they fall asleep with their head down like this, and suggest that they stop the drive.
The user says that he reported the issue to Tesla, but he hasn’t heard back:
I reported it through the app to the Robotaxi support team and told them I had videos, but I never got a response.
I held off on posting anything because I wanted to give Tesla a chance to respond privately. It has been more than a week now and this feels like a serious issue for other riders too.
The video went viral on Reddit, and another user said that the same thing happened to them, adding that they believe it was the exact driver.
Electrek’s Take
It is undoubtedly a tedious job. The system handles virtually all driving tasks, but the safety driver remains critical and must be ready to take control at all times.
As shown in Tesla’s ADS crash reporting in Austin, Tesla’s system still makes mistakes, and the safety drivers are there to correct them.
Tesla’s incidents in the Bay Area are harder to report because they fall under Tesla’s ADAS incident reporting, and since the automaker redacts most critical information, we don’t know whether they happened in the Robotaxi fleet or with regular FSD customers. They are dozens of those every month in the NHTSA reports.
In short, the job must be taken seriously. The driver-monitoring anti-drowsiness detector should have kicked in much sooner, especially since it was the third time he had fallen asleep on this ride, according to the user.
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Electric motorcycles come in all shapes and sizes these days, but few take the idea of “small format” as literally as the new Icoma Tatamel Bike. Designed by Takamitsu Ikoma – a former toy designer who clearly never lost his taste for Transformers – this little EV doesn’t just shrink.
It folds itself into a tidy rolling suitcase shape that can follow you into elevators, offices, and apartments, where full-sized bikes are a non-starter.
While the original Motocompo-esque prototype was more of a curiosity, the Tatamel Bike is now a real production vehicle with a 2–3 week lead time and a ¥498,000 (about US$3,300) price tag. And believe it or not, it actually works as transportation.
A motorcycle that becomes luggage
In its unfolded “bike mode,” the Tatamel is roughly the footprint of a compact seated scooter. But fold it down and the machine shrinks to just 69 × 69 × 26 cm (27 x 27 x 10 in), small enough to roll around like a piece of carry-on luggage. That’s fortunate, because at 63 kg (139 lb), you won’t be tossing it over your shoulder.
The idea is simple: ride it through the city, fold it in the lobby, and bring it upstairs just like you would a suitcase. For urban apartment dwellers who’ve dealt with “no bikes inside” policies, this solves a major headache. It’s just a suitcase…with big wheels?
Small size, real specs
Despite the toy-inspired vibe, the Tatamel Bike is built like a legitimate (albeit small) scooter. It uses a 600W motor (with an actual 2,000W peak rating), runs on a 51.2V 12Ah LiFePO₄ battery (roughly 600 Wh), and is rated for 18.6 miles (30 km) of real-world range with a top speed of around 25 mph (45 km/h). The 10-inch front wheel, 6.5-inch rear wheel, and dual suspension setup – including a rear monoshock – give it surprising stability for something that can also masquerade as luggage.
Load capacity clocks in at 220 lb (100 kg), and the manufacturer quotes a long 2,000–3,000-cycle battery lifespan thanks to the LiFePO₄ chemistry. There’s even a USB port onboard for topping up devices.
Let your inner toy designer loose
One of the standout features is the customizable side panel system. The flat surfaces are removable and can be swapped or printed with your own graphics, letting riders effectively “skin” the bike however they want.
Think anime art, business branding, or just your favorite color – the idea is to make each Tatamel uniquely yours.
Electrek’s Take
I absolutely love seeing small-format EVs rethink what a motorcycle can be, and the Tatamel Bike might be one of the most creative examples yet due to its customization-encouraging design.
Sure, it’s not fast, and it’s definitely not light. But as a last-mile machine that you can literally roll into an elevator, it nails the task.
Between the compact folding design, the surprising build quality, and those fun customizable panels, this is exactly the kind of quirky micromobility innovation I live for.
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Wisconsin is getting another boost in DC fast charging thanks to $14 million in recovered federal grants for 26 sites statewide. The funding comes through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, part of President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The award follows a legal battle earlier this year, when Governor Tony Evers (D-WI) joined other states in a lawsuit to force the Trump Administration to release over $60 million that Wisconsin was owed from the NEVI Formula Program. A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s illegal attempt to obstruct the NEVI program in June, clearing the way for planned NEVI EV charging projects to continue.
This round of sites fills in EV charging station coverage gaps following the initial awards announced in May 2024. Round one granted $22.4 million for 52 projects; 11 of those chargers are already online, and another 16 have been cleared for construction.
Across both award rounds, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has now allocated more than $36.4 million toward 78 total projects. The first NEVI-backed fast charging stations opened earlier this year at Kwik Trip stores in Ashland, Menomonie, and Chippewa Falls.
The 26 new charging stations will be built along Wisconsin’s Alternative Fuel Corridor and sited at convenience stores, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, and other travel stops. They’ll service the more than 37,000 EV drivers registered in the state, as well as road‑trippers and visitors, and will have a minimum of 150 kW per port.
Round two awardees include Tesla, Kwik Trip, and Universal EV. A full list of the 26 fast charging locations can be found here.
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