Ugh. Another Model S fire - 2013-11-06

[SwedishAdvocate]

It can be more difficult to work out a perception problem rather than a technical problem. Maybe that a celebrity could help to work out a perception problem.

IMO, a celebrity that can do a better job than Elon and n of the most knowledgeable people at Tesla does not exist.

 

[Alpha]

Someone on twitter suggested to Elon and Tesla: "The military has used Poly urea coatings to improve the performance of armor, without adding a lot of weight."
Anyway seems like a promising idea. Worth a shot at testing anyway! Could be quite easy to retrofit but I've no idea how expensive this stuff is...

 

[Raffy.Roma]

@Alpha

Congratulations! This is the best idea that I saw on TMC to work out the fires problem.

 

[yobigd20]

The Model S runover a metal object. According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the metal object was a tow hitch.

"The tow hitch hit the under carriage of the vehicle causing an electrical fire," the Highway Patrol said in a statement.
​

http://www.dizkover.com/Cars/830/the-cause-of-tesla-model-s-fire-in-tennessee

Welcome to the forums

This has been noted in several other threads already (and this thread will probably end up getting merged).

It is worth noting that once again, this was a random freak accident running over a metal object, not some random electrical short or spontaneous combustion.

I personally have driven over 400,000 miles in my life and never once ran over any large object on the road. I don't know how "common" this is considering I've driven over 400k in my life and havent had this happen once. Just another freak incident that happened to coincide with a similar freak accident several weeks ago. Maybe it's because I pay attention more and am able to drive around objects that I've seen on the road? I swerved once to void a weedwhacker that fell off the back of a truck. That's probably the closest incident I can think of that I've had similar to these.

 

[yobigd20]

I don't think the air suspension (at least in it's current hardware incarnation) adjusts nearly fast enough for this to work. It sure seems like I have to wait forever to get it to adjust an inch or two for a steep driveway.

Good idea though.

Waze integration could help. "Object on road ahead alert" -> car auto-raises suspension until it passes the location. Should be plenty of time.

 

[Gtoffo]

@Alpha

Congratulations! This is the best idea that I saw on TMC to work out the fires problem.

Yeah I agree, it'd be great to make the Model S mine proof. But how do we solve the impaling debris problem?

 

[Raffy.Roma]

Waze integration could help. "Object on road ahead alert" -> car auto-raises suspension until it passes the location. Should be plenty of time.

It wouldn't work. Road debris come out suddenly. And as stated above at highway speeds there is no time to raise the car after having detected a road debris.

 

[vfx]

Someone on twitter suggested to Elon and Tesla: "The military has used Poly urea coatings to improve the performance of armor, without adding a lot of weight."
Anyway seems like a promising idea. Worth a shot at testing anyway! Could be quite easy to retrofit but I've no idea how expensive this stuff is...

The Mythbusters should be spraying their own bunker.

Not convinced this would have helped in any of Tesla's cases. Blast proof is not penetration proof. The truck liner is resisting a pressure wave not a sharp object.

 

[Raffy.Roma]

Yeah I agree, it'd be great to make the Model S mine proof. But how do we solve the impaling debris problem?

You would have a better protection. Of course perfection doesn't exist. (Ciao ma sei Italiano! Iscriviti all'Italy Tesla Motors Club se ti va :smile

 

[JRP3]

Wasn’t that also the case after the first fire?

It seems that was pretty easily fixed with a blog post on the Tesla website and a couple of media appearances by Elon.

A single fire is one thing, we now have three, and we also have people saying that some people already think there are five, or seven, which is of course not the case, but it's the perception. Reasonable or not most people don't think a car should catch fire after running over something, and now we have two such incidents, (not counting the nut in Mexico), in a short period of time. I'm not sure even Elon can explain this one away to the satisfaction of the general public. Not one Volt ever caught fire outside of a test lab, yet many people still think to this day that they catch fire.

 

[Raffy.Roma]

@JRP3

You are right. IMO we have a PR/image problem rather than a true technical problem and a technical problem can be solved but a PR/image problem is much more difficult to solve.
Now I am very interested to see in the following days what will happen and what the responses of Tesla and the NHTSA to this matter will be.

 

[EnergyMax]

Clearly the Model S needs a way to drop its battery pack while traveling at speed, similar to the Starship Enterprise ejecting its warp core to prevent damage to the main ship. :wink:

 

[JST]

Clearly the Model S needs a way to drop its battery pack while traveling at speed, similar to the Starship Enterprise ejecting its warp core to prevent damage to the main ship. :wink:

But imagine what would happen to a Model S that ran over another Model S battery pack lying in the middle of the road.

 

[ABVA]

Again, what happens with other vehicles is irrelevant, perception has already made this a mountain.

What is relevant here are the facts, not the perception that is based on partial facts. Perception is strictly emotional whereas a valid opinion considers comparative facts. I'll still stay that this is un-proportionately magnified. Fact is that there have been three Model S fires, fact is that every time driver walked away unscathed, fact is that a group of people and media are unfairly fanning this fire, and that is how mole becomes a mountain (minus the strength of the mountain).

 

[vfx]

But imagine what would happen to a Model S that ran over another Model S battery pack lying in the middle of the road.

The second Model S would pick up the battery and get a 600 mile range!

 

[ABVA]

IMO we now have a problem that is 5% technical/safety related and 95% PR/image.

My wife, who likes our car but really doesn't care much otherwise said to me yesterday: "Did you hear that seven Teslas have caught on fire?"

I pressed her for details, but she wasn't even sure if she had been told or tead it somewhere. She just "knew". Boy oh boy...

Thanks for sharing this.
Do agree with you that it is nothing more than hype.
Very humbly, Maybe information source for 7 fires came from "two and a half men" 3 X 2.5 = 7
But then again that is how people "fan the fires" and hope that perceptions overtake the facts

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

But imagine what would happen to a Model S that ran over another Model S battery pack lying in the middle of the road.

The second Model S would pick up the battery and get a 600 mile range!

Hah! Less than a 90-sec battery swap!

 

[v12 to 12v]

Not convinced this would have helped in any of Tesla's cases. Blast proof is not penetration proof. The truck liner is resisting a pressure wave not a sharp object.

I agree. What hit these cars was more like a small missle in size and force. I'm skeptical that Tesla has a problem that is different from any other passenger vehicle when it comes to situations like we have seen.

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

A single fire is one thing, we now have three, and we also have people saying that some people already think there are five, or seven, which is of course not the case, but it's the perception. Reasonable or not most people don't think a car should catch fire after running over something, and now we have two such incidents, (not counting the nut in Mexico), in a short period of time. I'm not sure even Elon can explain this one away to the satisfaction of the general public. Not one Volt ever caught fire outside of a test lab, yet many people still think to this day that they catch fire.

Re the last two sentences:

Did GM do a similar PR offensive like the one Apple did?

I also think there’s a rather big difference between the Model S and the Volt.

As I understand it:

– Fox News and the fringe outlier right wing talk-radio-hacks have all been absolutely relentless in their constant bullying/bashing of the Volt.

– The Model S has basically been universally praised by everyone in the automotive press. It’s just in a completely different league compared to the Volt.

– The Model S is a pure EV. This combined with the previous point seems to make it much more desirable than the Volt.

– The Volt seems to be heavily discounted while Tesla up until the last fire had no problem selling the Model S at their set ‘sticker price’. And as I understand it, it’s not known if this third fire has impacted Model S sales, and if so, by how much.

 

[K5ING]

It wouldn't work. Road debris come out suddenly. And as stated above at highway speeds there is no time to raise the car after having detected a road debris.

I don't own a Model S (yet), but I'm curious whether it can be locked into maximum height, usually reserved for going in and out of steep driveways, no matter what your speed is? If so, how is the ride? Hardly a day goes by that I don't see something laying in the roadway while driving in an urban expressway environment. That, combined with potholes and bad urban roads in many cities and poor rural backroads that I frequent, I would probably keep mine in "urban mode" much of the time.