Tesla Model S Aces Safety Tests But Catches on Fire

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I like how the Tesla spokesperson said the fire was "contained to a small section in the front of the vehicle." Apparently she didn't see this picture. ;)

The Model S battery's 16 modules are located underneath the car, protected by a steel plate. "Each module within the battery pack is, by design, isolated by fire barriers to limit any potential damage," said Elizabeth Jarvis-Shean, a spokeswoman for Tesla Motors. "The fire in the battery pack was contained to a small section in the front of the vehicle."
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Read about that this morning. That is crazy. Person supposedly hit a piece of metal, it damaged a battery and started the fire. The spokeperson did try to downplay it as much as possible. Didnt' stop this from take a chunk out of their stock prices though.
 
No big deal.

Once can be some kind of fluke. It didn't catch fire in any of the big crash tests.

But if this happens again, then it gets a lot more problematic for Tesla.
 
I'd just like to point out that a spokespersons Job is to push the company line and would get in trouble if they went off message. Same with the press secretary.Many times they downplay events or seam to lie because that is the information they were given, or that is what they were directed to do.

That being said Tesla motors handled this poorly.
 
Good thing the cars we have now are filled with non flammable gasoline and oil.
 
Semantics said:
Good thing the cars we have now are filled with non flammable gasoline and oil.
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Yeah, exactly, there is no such thing as a 100% safe vehicle-- electric or gasoline powered. One has chemicals that can combust when punctured and the other has flammable liquids.

The chances of this happening again in the Tesla vehicle is slim to none because you have had to puncture the firewall and steel plate then create a spark to ignite the chemicals within an already hot battery. It's just a cascade of events that just happened to take place and led to another.

Do this to a gasoline tank and I'm sure something similar would happen, but the conditions have to be just right for the gasoline to ignite.

However, people here and other places will just make a big deal out of it because it's an electric vehicle and because it's Tesla. Just as bad as people poking fun at Apple 24/7.
 
If only everyone was carrying around a camera phone in the days of the Ford Pinto...
 
siliconnerd said:
If only everyone was carrying around a camera phone in the days of the Ford Pinto...
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What with all this BS about Pinto and Vega I own them, The same can be said about an car with gas tank at rear of the vehicles if you hit it hard enough something going to happing, have ever wonder why all newer pickup trucks 86 up now have there gas on inside of frame vs when they on outside.
 
should i bring up the Ferraris that caught on fire just sitting at stop light.... or the same model Ferrari that had engine lock ups.... and has had be recalled TWICE
 
shspvr said:
What with all this BS about Pinto and Vega I own them, The same can be said about an car with gas tank at rear of the vehicles if you hit it hard enough something going to happing, have ever wonder why all newer pickup trucks 86 up now have there gas on inside of frame vs when they on outside.
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I believe the special thing about the Pinto was just how easily it would rupture the tank, so "hard enough" for a Pinto wasn't actually all that hard.
 
Elios said:
people that dont know how to use a 16:9 camera should die in a fire
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He's driving at the same time as taking the video, somehow I don't think "correct aspect ratio" to on his mind :p
 
I've got a great idea. Let's require every house to be built to charge one of these.
 
I don't think it's a big deal that one of these cars caught fire, but I hope other (stupid) people do. I bought TSLA puts. It's ripe for fear.
 
I'm not a big Telsa fanboy, but I don't see how this is any different from any other car that could possibly exist. Cars have to carry around a lot of potential energy that can be easily and quickly converted to kinetic energy. There's not really any technology that will completely prevent release of this energy during all catastrophic events.
 
Kyle Ohashi, a captain with the Kent Fire Department that responded to the fire, said an unidentified metal object hit the bottom of the vehicle. "The car gave the driver a warning to stop and pull over," he told ABC News. "He got out and smoke started coming out of the car, followed by the fire."
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So he managed to hit something / something kicked up and damaged the car, subsequently received a warning, and managed to act on it effectively as a result...

That seems pretty good to me?
 
The car noticed the problem and informed the driver to pull over and get out. Safer than most still.

socK said:
So he managed to hit something / something kicked up and damaged the car, subsequently received a warning, and managed to act on it effectively as a result...

That seems pretty good to me?
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I have seen a car in California drive on the freeway with fire underneath it...least the Tesla told the driver to get out.
 
shspvr said:
What with all this BS about Pinto and Vega I own them, The same can be said about an car with gas tank at rear of the vehicles if you hit it hard enough something going to happing, have ever wonder why all newer pickup trucks 86 up now have there gas on inside of frame vs when they on outside.
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It is false perception that people have. We now have data that shows that the Pinto wasn't exactly as dangerous as people thought relative to how cars were built in that era. It was just bad design and ignorance as we didn't really know much better. I find it amazing how people conveniently ignore the VW Beetles which were potentially much more dangerous in a rear end collision.
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
I'm not a big Telsa fanboy, but I don't see how this is any different from any other car that could possibly exist. Cars have to carry around a lot of potential energy that can be easily and quickly converted to kinetic energy. There's not really any technology that will completely prevent release of this energy during all catastrophic events.
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+1 physics for you
 
Oh, it's an electric car.

Why would I want to own one of those? I want to save the planet, not pollute it with fossil fuels at the coal burning plant giving me my power or the hazardous battery that will ruin ecosystems...

Just kidding; those cars are awesome. Screw the planet.
 
Kuraudo said:
Oh, it's an electric car.

Why would I want to own one of those? I want to save the planet, not pollute it with fossil fuels at the coal burning plant giving me my power or the hazardous battery that will ruin ecosystems...

Just kidding; those cars are awesome. Screw the planet.
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You could choose to charge it with solar or wind. Not all electricity is dirty.
 
Not only did the car tell him to pull over and exit safely, but the dash slid back to reveal a bag of marshmallows and a couple of sticks.

OK, maybe it didn't...
But it'd been pretty damn funny if it did right?
 
One local report said the firefighters tried dousing it with water, but that made it worse, so they punched a hole through the battery to try to get to the source of the flames.

It's almost like they were trying on purpose, to burn it to the ground.
 
octoberasian said:
Yeah, exactly, there is no such thing as a 100% safe vehicle-- electric or gasoline powered. One has chemicals that can combust when punctured and the other has flammable liquids.

The chances of this happening again in the Tesla vehicle is slim to none because you have had to puncture the firewall and steel plate then create a spark to ignite the chemicals within an already hot battery. It's just a cascade of events that just happened to take place and led to another.

Do this to a gasoline tank and I'm sure something similar would happen, but the conditions have to be just right for the gasoline to ignite.

However, people here and other places will just make a big deal out of it because it's an electric vehicle and because it's Tesla. Just as bad as people poking fun at Apple 24/7.
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We've all run over stuff before. Is bursting into flames our first thought? No. It isn't if it could happen, it really a matter of how often running over something will cause you to burst into flames.

Generally the gas tank in a car has something lower and less volatile in front of it like a cross member or axle. This is true for even the engine and transmisssion oil pans. So anything high enough to reach the tank would hit structure first and be broken or pushed out of the way before the tank passed over it. There's no such leading structural feature in the testla the battery is the lowest point of the vehicle. And also the tanks aren't exactly as fragile as you make it sound.
 
Well, when you have 2000 individual battery cells...all it takes is one bad cell to ruin your day.
 
To be fair a recently released Ferrari had the same problem with some glue being used around the tires , it was in the news several times with several different owners watching them burn right down.

Shit happens during testing. Tesla is still far a head of everyone else when it comes to an actual viable electric car. Having thousands of batteries to keep cool and considering they are all lithium based means there are risks. I'm sure people ran into the same problems with Gasoline based cars when they were first released long before all the safety features were put in place.
 
Godmachine said:
Shit happens during testing. Tesla is still far a head of everyone else when it comes to an actual viable electric car.
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How so? Something that looks awesome on paper that sucks in practice still sucks. These new models have hardly had any time on the road in customer's hands. I think its a little early to decree this.
 
I love how the entire front third of the vehicle counts as a small section, and they forget to mention that fire fighters couldn't put the fire out with water and had to bring in a special chemical retardant and then cut the vehicle apart and drow the battery pack cell by cell.
 
As much as I would like to believe this is a rare one time incident, I do find it odd that with so few Teslas on the road, there is already a vehicle fire. Just a thought that there could be a design flaw with this particular model.
 
Kuraudo said:
Oh, it's an electric car.

Why would I want to own one of those? I want to save the planet, not pollute it with fossil fuels at the coal burning plant giving me my power or the hazardous battery that will ruin ecosystems...

Just kidding; those cars are awesome. Screw the planet.
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not every where uses coal and even IF your power comes from coal the CO2 released is FAR less then that of using gas any way
that coal plant is many times more efficient then any car on the road

some places like the north west are mostly hydro power
France is all nuclear

US needs MORE nuclear power with LFTR based reactors US as more Thorium then any one but Russia and China
and once you can get rid of the Thorium issue you can mine for rare earths in the US

Fun fact if a nuclear plant emitted even 1/2 the radiation that coal fired plant did in a day it the nuclear plant would be shut down
 
Ducman69 said:
I love how the entire front third of the vehicle counts as a small section...
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That's what I thought was so funny. Not Tesla's safety rating, build quality, chance of this happening, etc. etc.. It was the statement that the fire was "contained to a small section in the front of the vehicle" when the whole from of the car was on fire. :D
 
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