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Unfair comparison still. How many of those cars were old and in disrepair? How many of them were non-fatal accidents? How many of them were due to running ov
by Zimahl 13y ago
Unfair comparison still. How many of those cars were old and in disrepair? How many of them were non-fatal accidents? How many of them were due to running over debris?
- cdash 13y agoYou have a point with the old and disrepair but fatal accidents is a bad classifier because what proof do you have that fatal accidents of other cars are fatal accidents of a model S and by fatal I am assuming you mean fatal not due the fire. As for running over debris, again it is not important because who cares if gasoline cars have different causes for their fires vs the causes of the model S. What matters is the percentage that actually do catch on fire with a large enough population. After that, the next question that should be asked is, what is the difference between the danger of these fires. Are gasoline fires more or less dangerous.
- blinkingled 13y agoAre there stats around how many traditional cars exploded because of road debris hitting the gasoline tank? That's the key point here - everything can explode but what is the relative likelihood of a traditional car exploding because of road debris (as seems to be the case with the Tesla)? May be the gasoline tanks on cars are better shielded than the batteries on Tesla are.
- Dylan16807 13y agoCars don't explode.
- Natsu 13y agoNot sure if I need to recalibrate my sarcasm detector, but their gas tanks sure seem to: https://www.google.com/search?q=car+fire&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=car+fire&tbm=isch
- TylerE 13y agoStudy the difference between explosion and combustion.
- Natsu 13y agoProper explosions aren't that hard to find: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/83524899/ http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/83524899/
- JshWright 13y agoIt's _extremely_ rare for a gas tank to explode. The only way that could happen is if it pressurizes to the point that the tank itself explodes from the pressure. There are pressure relief valves on the tank that prevent that from happening in the vast majority of cases. They burn, sure. They almost never explode.
- blinkingled 13y agoExactly right. It might very well be that the way traditional cars are designed the gasolene tank is well shielded from debris than the batteries in the Tesla are. May be Tesla needs to find better, stronger compartment for the battery.
- sitharus 13y agoQuite possibly, it's a much smaller target relative to the rest of the underbody, but it's actually quite hard to set a gasoline tank on fire. If your tank was punctured while driving it's quite likely the first you'd know was when you ran out.
- sitharus 13y agoI agree with you there, there's no breakdown on model year. However, last year the 2013 Ford Fusion was recalled (over 89k sold) after 13 fires caused by engine overheating: http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/best-cars-blog/2012/12/2013_Ford_Escape_Fusion_Recalled_for_Engine_Fires/ http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/best-cars-b...
- qdog 13y agoThere were 300 fatal fires last year. So far Tesla has 0 fatal fires. Figure in http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/fire-tesla-model-reported-20815482 http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/fire-tesla-model-re... It's not clear whether the Tesla catches fire more often than other cars from road debris, 2 instances could be coincidence (I've never run over something that caused actual damage to my car after years of driving, crosses-finger). However, that is the government's job, to examine the fire and determine whether they should have been prevented.