I do appreciate stories such as this. I don't draw any conclusions from them, but they are nice data points to have. New technology comes with new performance

I do appreciate stories such as this. I don't draw any conclusions from them, but they are nice data points to have. New technology comes with new performance and safety envelopes, often unknown even to the engineers who design them. Reporting on otherwise unknowable events is helpful to build a picture of what those envelopes are. Without such reporting, it's unlikely that Tesla would have added the underbody plating when they did. Perhaps this incident is an aberration, or perhaps it is one of multiple incidents where the plating can be pierced and it leads to an upgrade. Either way, it's nice to know. Regarding ICE cars, Ferrari had a problem with a certain mid-engine model a few generations back where a fuel line would disconnect under hard driving and spray high-pressure fuel on the (hot) engine to obvious result. I don't believe any one was killed, but drivers sometimes reported barely making it out of the car in time. Enough reports of such incidents led to Ferrari investigating and making sufficient changes to prevent the fires.