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Tesla on fire: UK director Michael Morris' car bursts into flames
- sschueller 8y agoSo he was driving it and didn't realize it was on fire? I thought there are several temperature sensors near and around the battery that would set some sort of alarm off in such a case.
- sidcool 8y agoNo one was hurt thankfully
- greglindahl 8y agoThere are a ton of sensors in the battery, and the lack of the warning that usually appears is one reason why folks think it was the air conditioner that caught fire.
- mikeash 8y agoMeanwhile, about 300 non-Teslas burned in the UK yesterday, and about 300 will burn today, and tomorrow, and....
- api 8y agoDevil we know...
- mikeash 8y agoPlus, things that are newsworthy are rare pretty much by definition.
- htgb 8y agoIs the figure 300 rhetorical or literal?
- laumars 8y agoNot disputing this happens to other cars but 300 a day - in the UK alone no less - seems plausibly high. Got a source to back up that figure?
- thomasfedb 8y agoIt's closer to 40 a day, at least in 2016/17. Still, it's not a rare event, which I think was the point being made. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/636436/fire-statistics-data-tables-fire0302.xlsx https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...
- oldcynic 8y agoFrom your Excel link: Of which 50% are deliberate, and there is no breakdown of how many of the rest are random mechanical failure as opposed to having been involved in a collision with an associated fire.
- thomasfedb 8y agoI used the figures from accidental only - roughly 12k p.a. is around 35-40/day. Rough maths.
- csomar 8y ago40 a day for the UK is still a rare event. Don’t forget that there are lots of old cars there and negligent owners. But these news will make Tesla stick to higher standarda. So I don’t mind them.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mikeash 8y agoSource: https://www.fireservice.co.uk/safety/vehicle-fires/ https://www.fireservice.co.uk/safety/vehicle-fires/ I realize many of these are not really the same thing (there’s a lot of arson) but the basic point stands.
- nopriorarrests 8y agoSorry, you meant 300 non-teslas will burn spontaneously, not as result of a crash or other emergency? Is that true? Seems to be incredibly high number.
- mikeash 8y agoNo, that’s total fires, including arson and collisions and whatever else.
- pentae 8y agoAnd how many non Tesla cars are on the road vs Teslas?
- mikeash 8y agoFrom a quick search, Teslas make up about 1/1,000 of the cars in the UK (30,000 out of 30 million, very roughly). If Teslas burned at the same rate as the average we’d expect to see one Tesla fire every 3 days or so. (Of course there are lots of reasons that wouldn’t be true, like a huge amount of fires coming as the aftermath of thefts, and Teslas are harder to steal than average.)
- solarkraft 8y agoThis sort of things happens with cars sometimes. It's unfortunate, but Teslas seem to do this less & their design protects the occupants really well. I have a suspiction that he will continue driving a Tesla.
- zajd 8y agoWhat's a car from another brand that just burst into flames during normal operation?
- thomasfedb 8y agoBeing on fire is surely — by definition — not part of normal operation. Both electric and internal combustion vehicles have failure modes that involve fire.
- zajd 8y agoNo, but the activities that led to the fire were. There was no accident, there was no impact of any kind. It was a question, not a condemnation. When is the last time an ICE car burst into flames during normal operation?
- thomasfedb 8y agoGiven the number of cars that exist, it's almost guaranteed that the answer to that is "today" if you look hard enough.
- torpfactory 8y agoIt happens surprisingly regularly, but it doesn't get reported by the BBC. I was driving through Portland OR ~4 weeks ago and noticed an RV pull of the side of I5 southbound with the engine smoking. After a few minutes, flames were leaping from the engine compartment. I didn't see any indication that there had been an accident (no body damage, etc), so I assume there was no impact. Its not surprising really, ICEs are powered and lubricated by highly flammable liquids. They are certainly very reliable these days, but fire is still a failure mode.
- dghughes 8y agoAs unusual as it may be I hate seeing the Tesla denial machine jump into action. At least Tesla didn't blame the driver....yet.
- bhouston 8y agoWell there is a baseline rate of cars catching on fire - it happeneed to my mother in law just 2 years ago. We need statistics on this rather than a single instances to draw any conclusion that this is more prevalnet with telsa than other cars. Otherwise it is just a rhetorical war between telsa long and shorts.
- freehunter 8y agoIn the comments on these kinds of articles you'll always see the opposite of the Tesla denial machine: otherwise intelligent and well-educated people who for some reason believe that only Teslas catch fire and that internal combustion engines never burn up. Sometimes I wonder if these are submarine articles paid for by companies who want Tesla to fail. And it might be working... Musk seems a moment away from snapping completely.
- djmips 8y agoIsn't there a large group of investors who have shorted Tesla to the tune of billions who might be very motivated to see bad Tesla headlines and anti Tesla social media? How far would they be willing to go?
- Isinlor 8y agoTL;DR: Far. https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/29/1767826/-The-War-on-Tesla-Musk-and-the-Fight-for-the-Future https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/29/1767826/-The-War-on...
- cfadvan 8y agoCars of all kinds definitely catch fire, but other than some Italian supercars, don’t they tend to be old cars in poor repair? This is a very new car. How many of the yearly fire stats apply to a luxury car in its first two years or life?
- taurine 8y agoNot a flamethrower.
- bhouston 8y agoMy mother in law's car burst into flames 2 years ago. It was a wave in near perfect condition. These things have a baseline rate of happening but when it is Tesla it is front page news.
- csomar 8y agoThe question here is how do Tesla so far compare to the traditional cars.
- lgleason 8y agoIn other news, Samsung is in talks to buy Tesla and introduce a Note 7 car ;)
- neya 8y agoSomeone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Diesels are much safer than gasoline engines? Because, Diesels require compression to ignite unlike Gasoline, no? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
- mseebach 8y agoA spill of diesel is less immediately dangerous than a spill of the same amount of gasoline, but will still burn if it has a wick (you don't want your clothes soaked in diesel). But it's quite rare, I believe, as fuel tanks are well protected, so I don't think it translates into a statistically significant difference in safety between cars running on these different types of fuel.
- neya 8y agoThanks for the reply, that explanation makes sense!
- greglindahl 8y agoI don't think that statistics agree with you. The most dangerous thing about driving around in a car is getting physically smushed in an accident. Gasoline fires injuring people are much more rare. So it doesn't significantly change overall safety that gasoline ignites more easily than diesel.