Man In Tesla Model S Fire Explains What Happened 526
An anonymous reader writes "The three recent Tesla fires have raised concerns with a lot of people. One person who isn't concerned, however, is Juris Shibayama, the man whose model S burned in Tennessee. He says: 'I would buy another one in a heartbeat.' From the article: 'Shibayama said that he struck a three-pronged trailer hitch in the middle lane of the interstate. He continued: "About 30-45 seconds later, there was a warning on the dashboard display saying, 'Car needs service. Car may not restart.' I continued to drive, hoping to get home. About one minute later, the message on the dashboard display read, 'Please pull over safely. Car is shutting down.'" He said he had time to remove his possessions, even though, he said: "About 5-10 seconds after getting out of the car, smoke started to come from the front underbody of the car."'"
"three-pronged trailer hitch"? (Score:3, Interesting)
What exactly is a "three-pronged trailer hitch"? Google Images doesn't seem to have a clue, and it doesn't sound very functional. How does a trailer hitch with more than one "prong"/fulcrum do anything useful?
Re: Low expectations (Score:5, Interesting)
I've know two people had trucks catch fire in the last year or so.... A Chevy Silverado and a Ford F150. You know what stupid things they did to cause this? One was parked in the driveway outside his house the other was being driven down the interstate.... Where's the relentless news coverage on these incidents? Even better is the response from the companies, for letters stating it was not their fault.
Re:huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes. Shit on the road.
All kinds of stuff happens and sometimes you don't have time or options to deal with it. So, it's a drive over and hope. Sucks, but there isn't too much we can do about the problem.
Here's a nice one:
It's a torrential rain kind of night. About 11:00 PM, on a rural highway, two lane, cars regularly passing in opposing lane. My brother in law was driving an old 70's Toyota Corolla. The engine in that thing was great, but the body was crapping out here and there. This was the mid 90's. Toyota has since beefed things up some, but their 70's era cars were awful thin in places. The Corolla was thin in the trunk.
This brother in law saw a few rust patches, but didn't think too much of it having driven some Chevy thing or other before. No worries. Well, he had a nice, big, heavy floor jack in the back of that Corolla because he lost the stock one. Besides, the floor jack could lift one end of the car in a pinch, which made tire rotation quicker. That, and a 4-way lug wrench, various cans of oil, etc... were all in this razor thin, rusted out trunk, just waiting to exit the car, which they did.
When it happened, he was moving about 60, nobody in front, headed to meet the rest of the family. Two or three vehicles were behind him, following close as people in my neck of the woods will often do. Out comes that jack. It probably weighed 25 pounds. He heard the clunk, and it actually wedged in a way that moved the rear of the car some, he saw sparks and then one of the lights behind him went out.
Now he's a dick, and just floored it. All he knows is that way too close tailgater got up close and very personal with that floor jack, and had to pull off the road. Some other cars in the other lane darted about and a few had pulled over that he could see in the rear mirror, while speeding away as quickly as he could.
When he arrived to tell the story, we opened the trunk, and he basically didn't have one anymore. All the stuff was gone, and the metal bits were bent this way and that along the edges. We think the trunk floor just dropped out and onto the road. The news featured the event and he worried about it for years. That jack took the first car right out! Bashed the drivers side light out, pierced the radiator, and ruined the drivers side tire before bouncing into traffic going the other direction where other fun 'n games proceeded to occur where it bounced into another one doing enough damage to the muffler and side panel to be ugly, and ended up pinned under a third where it ground to a stop.
Shit happens.
Probably that thing was not secured and just ended up on the road. So this guy is driving along, somebody changes lanes or something and there it is! He probably didn't have options. If he did, he would have not driven over it, unless it just dropped in such a way that left him no time.
Re:They should upgrade the warning ... (Score:3, Interesting)
On a more serious note: the fact that my car bursts into flames would not be a big consideration whether or not I'll buy the same make and model again. I know it's an unlikely event to happen again. It still is an issue that needs to be investigated though. On average, 1 in 150,000 cars in the US catch fire while in traffic. For Tesla it now stands on 1 in 6,300.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
In this situation, your brother in law committed what was potentially multiple felonies and certainly was a negligent motor vehicle operator for failing to secure his cargo (which would include the floor jack and contents of the trunk). It could even be considered a hit and run accident in the way you've described.
Seriously, this sounds like one heartless bastard that really needs to rethink his personal ethics.
I do agree that some people who tailgate often get karmic justice in terms of shit happening to them simply because they are not thinking about potential problems with the vehicle ahead of them. When I'm driving I try to imagine from time to time that a sinkhole or at least a large pothole has opened up to swallow the vehicle in front of me and wonder if I have time to react and avoid that disaster myself? I've also seen a whole bunch of stuff on a highway that has fallen out of vehicles.
I've even taken the time to pull over and if there was a safe way to remove the debris (like on a rural interstate with a lull in the traffic) I try to pull it off to the side of the highway. Even if I can't take it off the highway safely, I have tried to report the problem by dialing 9-1-1 on my cell phone where dispatchers will take note of the milepost and get a highway patrol or state police vehicle to check it out. It is amazing how much trash and stuff they pull off of highways.
Re:They should upgrade the warning ... (Score:5, Interesting)
That being said, 1 in 6300 is a lot. We should develop safer battery systems for these cars.
Oh right let's see. The battery is protected by a thick steel plate that was punctured by ridiculously heavy road debris--you know, ramming into shit with your car is a bad idea. There was the one in Mexico that hit a concrete wall at 100mph and caught fire too. Don't know about contestant #3.
The battery compartment is thermally isolated from the car. There's firewalls.
The batteries have a dense thermoreactive foam around each cell. When the battery catches fire, every heat-damaged cell (primarily the burning ones) releases a thick insulative foam that prevents heat from damaging the other cells and causing a bigger fire. This also protects the passenger compartment.
So far they haven't EXPLODED INTO GIANT FIREBALLS.
How much safer do you want it?
Re:They should upgrade the warning ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Her father had been an engineer for Ford, and I think he was more heartbroken about the situation than she was.
Re:They should upgrade the warning ... (Score:4, Interesting)
There is little to be done when you pierce a Lithium battery. It pretty much going to burn, if not explode.
The point is This will alert the driver that something is very very wrong, and they need to get themselves and their passengers out of the car, right now
It should light up driver and passenger side lamps that say "EMERGENCY STOP; BATTERY EXPLOSION HAZARD"
The thermal overrun of a lithium battery is slow enough, that meaningful warning can be given which can save lives.