3 ms·

Why is this news?

RodericDay 8y ago
> Tesla has been under scrutiny before over several instances of vehicles catching fire.
jtokoph 8y ago
This was my first thought. Would this article have been news if it said teens crash mommy’s Porsche into concrete wall? Maybe this is news because the Porsche may not have burst into flames.
- Cshelton 8y ago
  Exactly. There are thousands of instances where the article is just a local news of "teen crashes parents sports car", where the picture is typically a Ford Mustang. Yet, the make and model of the vehicle is very rarely in the headline. Also, there are a ton of ICE crashes where the vehicle catches fire, but, it is also not news. Any rupture to the fuel tank has a high probability of catching fire and it happens so much that it never makes a news article.
- danso 8y ago
  This story would not be news on HN for any other carmaker (and shouldn’t be for Tesla, IMO). But generally, local news orgs do cover fatal crashes, especially with multiple young victims.
JCSato 8y ago
Because Tesla is topical and outlets want to ride the wave of the self-driving murder car as long as they can?
- Davertron 8y ago
  Yeah, I guess my real question is "why is this (hacker) news?". But I know why it's really being reported, I guess I just hoped HN wasn't as bad as other news outlets...but here I am, commenting on the story so...
testfoobar 8y ago
Because the car burst into flames and two passengers were incinerated. According to one bystander, one was moving but the car too hot to approach. This (death by fire) is a horrific failure mode that is unique to current gen EVs.
makeramen 8y ago
I had the same thought, though it’d be interesting to understand the tradeoffs of better crash test safety + higher flammability, vs gas powered cars.
cabaalis 8y ago
It is a tragedy. But the question asked is "Why is this news?" and that's the question I will put my 2 cents worth in. It's news because it has the word Tesla directly in the headline. It's news because I clicked on it, and therefore the Sun Sentinel made a couple cents from advertisers. It's news because they very consciously decided to report it that way, with the intention of optimizing their incentives. Had it been a Ford Taurus, the make and model of the car might never have been mentioned. Also, had it been a Ford Taurus, the headline would not have been phrased in a way such as "look at what the car did to these poor kids" instead of "look at what happened to these poor kids."
- EADGBE 8y ago
  Tesla/Fire/crash always makes news.

Why is this news?

> Tesla has been under scrutiny before over several instances of vehicles catching fire.

This was my first thought. Would this article have been news if it said teens crash mommy’s Porsche into concrete wall? Maybe this is news because the Porsche may not have burst into flames.

Cshelton 8y ago
Exactly. There are thousands of instances where the article is just a local news of "teen crashes parents sports car", where the picture is typically a Ford Mustang. Yet, the make and model of the vehicle is very rarely in the headline. Also, there are a ton of ICE crashes where the vehicle catches fire, but, it is also not news. Any rupture to the fuel tank has a high probability of catching fire and it happens so much that it never makes a news article.
danso 8y ago
This story would not be news on HN for any other carmaker (and shouldn’t be for Tesla, IMO). But generally, local news orgs do cover fatal crashes, especially with multiple young victims.

JCSato 8y ago

Because Tesla is topical and outlets want to ride the wave of the self-driving murder car as long as they can?

Davertron 8y ago
Yeah, I guess my real question is "why is this (hacker) news?". But I know why it's really being reported, I guess I just hoped HN wasn't as bad as other news outlets...but here I am, commenting on the story so...

testfoobar 8y ago

Because the car burst into flames and two passengers were incinerated. According to one bystander, one was moving but the car too hot to approach. This (death by fire) is a horrific failure mode that is unique to current gen EVs.

makeramen 8y ago

I had the same thought, though it’d be interesting to understand the tradeoffs of better crash test safety + higher flammability, vs gas powered cars.

cabaalis 8y ago

It is a tragedy. But the question asked is "Why is this news?" and that's the question I will put my 2 cents worth in. It's news because it has the word Tesla directly in the headline. It's news because I clicked on it, and therefore the Sun Sentinel made a couple cents from advertisers. It's news because they very consciously decided to report it that way, with the intention of optimizing their incentives. Had it been a Ford Taurus, the make and model of the car might never have been mentioned. Also, had it been a Ford Taurus, the headline would not have been phrased in a way such as "look at what the car did to these poor kids" instead of "look at what happened to these poor kids."

EADGBE 8y ago
Tesla/Fire/crash always makes news.