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Owner of Battery Fire Tesla Vehicle: Car 'Performed Very Well, Will Buy Again'
cartechboy writes "The Tesla Model S fire that, to date, is either electric car Armageddon or 'no big deal' has been fun Internet theatre combined with a dose of crowd-sourced battery-pack pseudo-expertise. Now the actual car owner (and Tesla investor) weighs in with his take, which is, basically, 'nothing to see here and yes, I can't wait to get back into a Tesla.' Owner Robert Carlson wrote an email in response to contact by Tesla's vice president of sales and service, Jerome Guillen, saying he found the car had 'performed very well under such an extreme test. The batteries went through a controlled burn which the Internet images really exaggerates.' Carlson had no comment on the guy who videoed his car fire, who is now Internet infamous for shooting video in portrait mode." You can read Elon Musk's take, along with Carlson's correspondence.
For the love of all things holy, can camera software / smartphone software detect if the user has _initiated_ the recording rotated and adapt appropriately?
Alternatively, can we get some simple, easy software which rotates video easily? Pictures are a breeze, video seemingly not. It's 2013 already!
The guy is a tesla investor. The fire could have consumed his infant grandchildw and he wouldn't badmouth Tesla. If I has money locked up in something like that I woud say the same things to the press, too. Also, today he probably has 5 times as much equity in Tesla as a week ago (nudge nudge) We are talking about a company controlled by the guy who came up with frickin' PayPal, for petes sake.
... I guess they really are just like all the other cars out there.
A car that can't suddenly roast its occupants in an explosion should be regarded as a step forwards. Don't forget how dangerous it is to travel at speed in a vehicle that carries both a tank of highly volatile liquid and an engine that, even when functioning properly, turns 70-75% of that potential energy into heat.
My neighbor's truck caught fire shortly after he parked it. Problem was a fuel pump which did not shut down properly, and continued to pump fuel to a hot engine with a leak on the fuel injector rail.
Things went from bad to worse very fast.
He was able to push the thing into the middle of the street while it was in the infancy of the burn stage.
During the height of the burn, all of the neighbors were out with their garden hoses trying to keep the gasoline down, but kinda useless... the tank overheated, ruptured, and sent a small stream of ignited gasoline down the street. Of course, everybody moved their cars pronto. The gasoline went on into the gutter and went underground - what happened to it down there is anyone's guess, but it was well lit and smoked a lot down there.
Point I am trying to make is that when the energy which was intended to move a car and its passengers hundreds of miles is released in the space of a few minutes, the results can be spectacular, and destructive.
The fact the car did not literally explode says a heck of a lot.
You can put out a match by dipping it in gasoline.
....Maybe, if you're very quick. But the gasoline would be giving off vapor upwards, which the match would run into downwards. I've seen the old "dip your hand in water and you can dunk it in liquid lead" trick, but this sounds more like that "heat up a spoon with duck tape around the handle then put it in cold water*" cruel prank.
*do NOT attempt!
You were critically hit for no damage. The bruise will look nice, and maybe the scars will make good party talk.
Well, you can run an ICE just fine by pouring gas down the intake manifold. When I was younger and stupider, I did that with my ancient Oldsmobile. Yes, it required a bit of subtlety, but not as much as you'd expect.
Carburetors got quite complex because people expected perfect engine response, at all throttle settings, at environmental conditions ranging from startup at 10,000 feet in the winter to running below sea level at 120 degrees F in the summer, and the government expected minimal emissions in all those situations. But, basic though inefficient operation can be accomplished with a straw and a gas reservoir.
And the worms ate into his brain.
And what happens if the firewall is already compromised when the firemen arrive? Are they suppose to stand in the middle of the flames while they reattach the firewall before attempting to extinguish the fire? Try to apply a bit more common sense and critical thinking before accusing others of not knowing what they're talking about.
If you're planning on putting matches out by throwing them into the gas tank, gasoline is just the BEST vehicle fuel. Plus, it's so cheap and easily obtainable. You can just back your car up to those gasoline lakes and fill 'er up.
But it's good to know I can throw a match into the gas tank and be perfectly safe. That's probably why internal combustion cars never catch fire.
Clearly, this Tesla fire is proof that electric cars can never work.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I attribute the serious press coverage and negative tone to paid coverage by other car manufacturers. They are scared of Tesla because they've developed everything in house and now hold patents on a lot of key electric car technology.
Anyone with any brains looked at this as said so what. I've seen car fires, obviously gas car fires and they are fucking scary. I watched a gas car go from a little smoke to smouldering ember in less than 2 minutes. The driver barely made it out alive. People are routinely killed in car fires because gas cars burn very very fast. Apparently the Model S told him there was trouble and to pull over and he was out of the car waiting for help long before the fire started. Though it makes for an interesting video had that been a gas fire the car would have been a smoking ember before the fire department got there.
I understand your reasoning. But it's kind of a good argument for Federal fuel economy standards, isn't it?
There's no incentive for car manufacturers to make lighter vehicles, so it will never happen. Plus, you have people who want to drive locomotives because fuck you that's why.
The only reason we're going to break the cycle of cars getting bigger and heavier is to set some standards. Because even if gas goes to $20/gallon, there's going to be some rich prick who says, "I need my 8,000 lb SUV because I'm the biggest dog on the block". So now everybody else has to get a bigger car so they're safe from John Galt in the SUV. In the meantime, all that weight causes the roads to breakdown sooner, which we've all got to pay for and all the other external costs like pollution and the wars that are necessary to keep a steady supply of cheap gasoline coming.
You are welcome on my lawn.