With Burning Teslas In the News Ford Recalls Almost 140,000 Escapes

An anonymous reader writes "Tesla received a lot of attention over the Model S fires recently, but they're not the only car company having issues with spontaneous combustion. Ford has issued a recall on almost 140,000 Ford Escapes for potential engine fires. With little media attention on the recall, Musk might have a point about the unfair treatment Tesla gets in the news."

Comments

"Spontaneous"?

[Michael Woodhams]

I do not think it means what you think it means.

Re:"Spontaneous"?

[Crudely_Indecent]

If a car catches fire when it's not in an accident, and it wasn't intentionally set ablaze - I would call that spontaneous.

Well, when you're in the news...

[Nefarious Wheel]

You can always tell a pioneer by the arrows in his back.

The peril of new technology

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course Tesla is getting lots of press, it's because electric cars are new. People (especially Americans) do not like change, they assume that the old way is the best way. With every new technology, you'll have those old bastards still crying about how their gas engines never did this (Even though they do, and on a much larger scale).

The same press will plague the driverless car. Once one or two accidents happen the media will be in an uproar and so will the populace.

Re:The peril of new technology

[mjwx]

Of course Tesla is getting lots of press,

Tesla's failures are getting a lot of press because Musk wanted Tesla's successes to get a lot of press.

Musk cant have it both ways, Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Ford on the other hand, well we almost expect recalls from them.

Re:The peril of new technology

[Woek]

This is something I truly do not understand. Americans should be extremely proud of Tesla Motors! An american company launches their first fully in-house developed electric car, almost out of nothing, and completely blows away anything that is available anywhere in the world. Including decades old multi-billion dollar companies in Europe and Japan. This car is not cheap, but it is exclusive, well built, comfortable, reliable, has good range, incredible performance, is innovative and almost legacy-free. And very importantly (and surprisingly for an american car if I may say so) actually looks very good! Furthermore, the company takes initiative to create a very useful charging network, and has amazing customer service.
Americans, embrace Tesla Motors please!!

Re:Thin-skinned whiner

[mojo-raisin]

One would almost think Musk had poured every dime he owned into Tesla and was in a bitter battle against an entrenched and corrupt industry. ... oh wait.

Re:Fire vs. Potential Fire

[pitchpipe]

Elon Musk should be looking at Ford management and asking himself what they know about making and selling cars that he doesn't.

Translation: why isn't he burning gas like every other god fearin' 'Murican?

Intro to statistics

[Firethorn]

In addition, there's a difference between a sample size of 150k and 20k. 12 out of 150k is a much more meaningful number than 3 out of 20k. In addition, Ford has developed a physical fix, while Tesla was able to impliment a fix via software update. If they chose to follow that up with a hardware fix, that has to be designed and implimented.

Given that the incidents in question were all after collisions that probably would have totaled most vehicle anyways, and were nice enough to wait long enough for the people to evacuate the car, I'm not sure it's as serious of an issue as 'spontaneously combusts while parked'.