JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Peloton announced it’s launching a new safety feature on its Tread+ and Tread treadmills.
This comes after the company recalled about 125,000 of its treadmills following multiple reports of injuries and the death of a child.
Peloton’s solution for customers who chose to keep their treadmill is a new “Tread Lock” feature that requires a four-digit code before using the treadmill and locks the machine after 45 seconds of inactivity outside of a class.
In addition to the death of a 6-year-old, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said, Peloton received 72 reports of people, pets or objects being pulled under the rear of the Tread+, including 29 reports of injuries to children such as second- and third-degree abrasions, broken bones and lacerations.
Peloton said that if a user wants to keep their treadmill, it will cover the cost of moving the machine to be locked into another room for customers, or the company is offering refunds to customers who contact them before November 2022 and partial refunds after that.
For current users, the new feature will be on the support page, and users will be required to set it up following an automatic software upgrade.