Hover boards are a poor knockoff of a segway. There was even a stickless version hacked up by someone in the US a few weeks after the Segway's release. This dates back to patents filed in 1994.
Re:China Blocks WhatsApp
by chaostheory on Tuesday September 26, 2017 @10:49AM
(#15339129)
Actually the video confirms that the hoverboard was created by a Chinese American, living in Seattle, who also patented it. The Chinese versions even look identical to the patent filing.
Hoverboards are originally from China [1] however, most of us have likely learned about them from Kickstarter etc. I think the users of HN would agree that "invention is never a sudden thing". The process for hoverboards has been iterative, of course. I have heard claims of having commercial hoverboards as much as five years before they became household names in the US.
[1] https://youtu.be/SGJ5cZnoodY?t=33m52s