Tesla Model S Catches Fire While in Motion – Not Caused by Crash

https://insideevs.com/tesla-model-s-catches-fire-while-in-motion-not-caused-by-crash/

by bspn • 8 years ago

22 10 8 years ago

taobility• 8 years ago

Elon Musk: this is definitely no the fault of autopilot.

TillE• 8 years ago

Wasn't a previous Tesla fire caused by a bit of metal debris on the road puncturing the batteries, a la the Concorde crash?

That wouldn't be a crash per se, but neither is it spontaneous combustion. It's just the kind of not-too-unusual damage which should probably be better planned for.

toomuchtodo• 8 years ago

A trailer hitch, that was levered into the battery pack. Tesla mitigates that failure scenario (at least on the Model S) with a titanium shield across the entire battery pack, with a metal assembly near the front of the vehicle to break an object apart that exceeds the clearance of the undercarriage.

greglindahl• 8 years ago

Normally the car notifies the driver that there's a battery problem, and that they should pull over and exit the car.

chriselles2• 8 years ago

This one is particularly painful for Tesla as the owner’s wife is a minor celebrity with major celebrity friends.

Reputational damage risk in this case could be significantly magnified due to Chelsea Handler’s recent tweet to 8.8 million followers:

“Everyone with an early model Tesla needs to be aware of this. I have one that I will not be driving again. @Tesla @elonmusk”

Ouch!

noitsnot• 8 years ago

This isn't news. Do we need to blow every little thing happening to Tesla out of proportion? Not to mention, the inside cabin doesn't even look affected.

woodandsteel• 8 years ago

From what I have read, it looks like speculators who have shorted Tesla stock are going to loose a couple of billion dollars in the coming months, and so they have been seeding the press with negative stories and op-ed pieces to try to get the stock price down.

chriselles2• 8 years ago

I’m admittedly in the “2nd rat(meaning not Tesla) gets the cheese” camp.

So I may be quite biased.

But I think if THIS particular story that involves a celebrity with major reach(8.8 million social) is “seeded” then THAT would be a MAJOR story and SEC investigation and DOJ prosecution.

I definitely get your point that Tesla shorts are biased heavily towards bad news stories.

URSpider94• 8 years ago

Gas cars catch fire out of the blue on occasion as well, In fact there were 152,000 car fires per year in the period 2006-2010. Only 4% of those were collision-related[1].

Not saying this shouldn’t be investigated, but nobody was injured, and this now makes ONE non-crash Tesla battery fire that I’m aware of.

[1] https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/By-topic/Property-type...

AngryData• 8 years ago

This isn't unexpected to happen occasionally, as long as it is rare. Nothing is failure proof and the failure mode for a big battery is many times fire. This is like reporting on somebodies car throwing a rod while on the road or another fire.

Tesla Model S Catches Fire While in Motion – Not Caused by Crash

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