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I hope you realize that lithium-ion battery fires are much worse than margarine or flour fires, and almost impossible to extinguish, especially in the confines

I hope you realize that lithium-ion battery fires are much worse than margarine or flour fires, and almost impossible to extinguish, especially in the confines of a tunnel. And while prices might look good for the USA (I'm not sure), they are gigantic when compared to similar projects in Europe. And a mass-transport car tunnel has exactly 0 advantages over a rail tunnel.

Veedrac 2y ago
How hard it is to extinguish is vastly, vastly less important than ‘does it stop people safely escaping’ and ‘does it overwhelm the safety equipment’. It is obvious that having a huge goods fire from a commercial truck that shuts down people's vehicles is dangerous; that directly leads to death and directly prevents rescue. It is obvious that having isolated, separately functioning vehicles that can drive away, and a fire from a specific, planned-for factor of an understood quantity has a comparatively low potential for causing death.
- collingreen 2y ago
  "Obviously" is doing a lot of work here. I liked the article and thought it was a fun peek deeper into the regulatory and safety manual side of things. You attacking it for being really weird and then about how _obviously_ it is or isn't certain ways compared to historic fires in other tunnels feels forced and out of place to me.
  - Veedrac 2y ago
    I said the fire safety comparisons were reasonable and don't think, nor did I state, that the article was actively bad there. My pushback here was to the HN comment claiming the risk was much worse than the historic comparisons, which the article didn't do. I agree the article was fun and had charm. My criticisms were more narrow than that.
spdif899 2y ago
Noting the vehicles driven in the tunnel are the Model Y and X, which are both equipped with a massive HEPA filter and an HVAC mode that pressurizes the passenger compartment while routing all incoming air through the filter. This is designed to allow owners to drive through a wildfire, for example, and in testing has performed quite well. I would love to see a video of testing the scenario discussed here. Enclosed tunnel with poor ventilation and fire safety equipment, the car in front of you catches fire, can you just sit there perfectly fine?

Veedrac 2y ago

How hard it is to extinguish is vastly, vastly less important than ‘does it stop people safely escaping’ and ‘does it overwhelm the safety equipment’. It is obvious that having a huge goods fire from a commercial truck that shuts down people's vehicles is dangerous; that directly leads to death and directly prevents rescue. It is obvious that having isolated, separately functioning vehicles that can drive away, and a fire from a specific, planned-for factor of an understood quantity has a comparatively low potential for causing death.

collingreen 2y ago
"Obviously" is doing a lot of work here. I liked the article and thought it was a fun peek deeper into the regulatory and safety manual side of things. You attacking it for being really weird and then about how _obviously_ it is or isn't certain ways compared to historic fires in other tunnels feels forced and out of place to me.
- Veedrac 2y ago
  I said the fire safety comparisons were reasonable and don't think, nor did I state, that the article was actively bad there. My pushback here was to the HN comment claiming the risk was much worse than the historic comparisons, which the article didn't do. I agree the article was fun and had charm. My criticisms were more narrow than that.

spdif899 2y ago

Noting the vehicles driven in the tunnel are the Model Y and X, which are both equipped with a massive HEPA filter and an HVAC mode that pressurizes the passenger compartment while routing all incoming air through the filter. This is designed to allow owners to drive through a wildfire, for example, and in testing has performed quite well. I would love to see a video of testing the scenario discussed here. Enclosed tunnel with poor ventilation and fire safety equipment, the car in front of you catches fire, can you just sit there perfectly fine?