Tesla Slips From Pedestal That May Have Been Too High

[tsupersonic]

I want to see a 'regular' car (gasoline) run over this, and see what happens. Tesla seems to get either really good press or really negative press (like this or Top Gear). Sad since there is no other company w/ electric cars that are remotely close to what they have achieved. 

[spudtrooper]

Another explanation is that the speculators have opened short positions and are betting on the stock's decline after this year's amazing rally.

 

 

Which really just proves the nonsense of "Shareholder value".  Shareholders don't do anything for value, they do it for immediate gains.  The "long tail" stock market is long gone..  to many short players, too many eletronic traders and not enough people holding positions for value

[xendrome]

That's frightening to think a puncture to the battery can cause it to burst into flames like that. They should put Kevlar around the batteries in the future!

 

Musk further explained that the piece of metal that probably hit the Model S fell off a semi trailer and would have needed to be pushed up off the road in a lever-like action with, "a peak force on the order of 25 tons," since, "only a force of this magnitude would be strong enough to punch a 3-inch diameter hole through the quarter-inch armor plate protecting the base of the vehicle."

 

Cars are now rated on how they survive an incident like this, instead of how the passenger survives?

[Growled Member]

 

a peak force on the order of 25 tons

 

Ain't nothing gonna save any car with that much force applied to it.

[remixedcat]

Look, people are gonna make a big deal about this becuase the oil companies want to scare people. 

[goatsniffer]

Lithium reacts violently with water. There are many YouTube videos that demonstrate this. It's science.

 

What is really scary is the impact of media hype. In the early days of combustion vehicles there were far more fires/explosions/deaths, now a single electric car catches fire and people proclaim to lose faith.

 

Last time I checked, toasters have killed more people than electric cars.

[vcfan]

the fire had been burning since the owner left the vehicle, called the fire department, and the time it took them to get there. it could have initially been a tiny fire. even then, it still looks like the fire is contained in the engine bay.

[threetonesun]

The car actually detects faults and tells you what to do ?

 

well show me the gas car that does that when a faults causes it to catch fire... and unlike this, they usually burn quickly into the passenger compartments, and there's been a lot of cases where people discover smoke coming from the engine area, and stop the care, and they barely make it out of the car with their family before the whole passenger area is engulfed. 

 

Right? I had a spark plug break in my car, the engine was shooting gas at the exhaust manifold, it was not far off from catching on fire, and outside of the fact that the car ran like garbage (as one would expect when your car has become some sort of gasoline pump machine instead of an internal combustion engine), there was no notification to my impending doom. Didn't even get a check engine light, even though I've got to believe some of the exhaust sensors were out of whack at that point.

 

Also, has everyone forgotten all of those Explorers that caught on fire by themselves in the night time in people's garages, burning down their entire house? They didn't call them Exploders for no reason. Sure, gasoline and electricity both have their risks, but if I had to chose one to handle every day and stick in a box near me as I fly around at 60+ mph, I'll take the electricity, thanks. At the very least, it smells better.

[Growled Member]

Look, people are gonna make a big deal about this becuase the oil companies want to scare people. 

 

One reason. I think the other is people tend to scrutinize newer tech more harshly than the old tried and true.

[Kami-]

Proof? My proof is that cars run over the same crap daily and yet they do not blow up or start burning, gas tanks are nicely protected and takes a fairly large impact to cause any catastrophic damage to one

 

Sure, I'll rise to your bait:

 

 

Earlier this week, a Model S traveling at highway speed struck a large metal object, causing significant damage to the vehicle. A curved section that fell off a semi-trailer was recovered from the roadway near where the accident occurred and, according to the road crew that was on the scene, appears to be the culprit. The geometry of the object caused a powerful lever action as it went under the car, punching upward and impaling the Model S with a peak force on the order of 25 tons. Only a force of this magnitude would be strong enough to punch a 3 inch diameter hole through the quarter inch armor plate protecting the base of the vehicle.

<snip>

It is important to note that the fire in the battery was contained to a small section near the front by the internal firewalls built into the pack structure. At no point did fire enter the passenger compartment.

Had a conventional gasoline car encountered the same object on the highway, the result could have been far worse. A typical gasoline car only has a thin metal sheet protecting the underbody, leaving it vulnerable to destruction of the fuel supply lines or fuel tank, which causes a pool of gasoline to form and often burn the entire car to the ground. In contrast, the combustion energy of our battery pack is only about 10% of the energy contained in a gasoline tank and is divided into 16 modules with firewalls in between. As a consequence, the effective combustion potential is only about 1% that of the fuel in a comparable gasoline sedan.

The nationwide driving statistics make this very clear: there are 150,000 car fires per year according to the National Fire Protection Association, and Americans drive about 3 trillion miles per year according to the Department of Transportation. That equates to 1 vehicle fire for every 20 million miles driven, compared to 1 fire in over 100 million miles for Tesla. This means you are 5 times more likely to experience a fire in a conventional gasoline car than a Tesla!

 

Taken from: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/model-s-fire

[BillyJack]

That's frightening to think a puncture to the battery can cause it to burst into flames like that. They should put Kevlar around the batteries in the future!

 

 

You do not think if this happened to a gas car it would happen?

[spenser.d]

Sure, I'll rise to your bait:

Taken from: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/model-s-fire

See those are facts though and we just can't have that it it makes big oil look bad :P

[Coagulated]

Second time recently I've seen some story titled Tesla and the first thing that pops to mind is the rock band!!

 

I've heard of this Tesla before, but hasn't been in the news much previously, so not a name that pops into mind instantly. At least they're working on becoming a more common name now!!

 

I just think of this:

 

 

Generally the PC version, but I couldn't find a better image!