The nearly new Tesla Model Y caught fire after shutting down while driving. The driver claimed to be stuck in the car and had to break the glass to get out.
This is a good reminder to know and remember that all doors in Tesla cars have manual opening.
The incident happened last Friday in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Jamil Utah was driving his 2021 Tesla Model Y, which he bought just eight months ago when he claims the car clicked an error message and then shut down.
He felt the cabin fill with smoke. He told firefighters when they arrived, after being asked if anyone else was in the car:
No. To get out of the car, I had to break a window. I pushed the window. Everything stops. The force did not work. The door did not open. The windows didn’t go down, so I think I need to get out of this car, so I skipped.
While it is true that the main way to control a door in a Tesla car are electronic releases that do not work in the event of a power loss, each door is also equipped with a manual opening on the side.
In fact, this is often a problem for people unfamiliar with the car, as they use a manual switch instead of an electronic one, which allows windows on frameless doors to slide down before opening the door – ensuring a safer door opening.
After a few minutes of smoke from the car, flames became visible in the cabin. Firefighters arrived about five minutes after the car began to smoke and they were able to quickly put out the fire.
Here is a video of the whole incident:
Electric take
While you shouldn’t use them too often, you should be aware of manual blooms on your doors. Whatever your car, because at the moment it’s not just for Tesla.
It is important to note that it is not known that electric vehicles catch fire faster than petrol vehicles.
Most EV fires occur after a serious accident, which is quite common for an electric or gasoline vehicle. There are also more alarming cases where the EV lights up without failure, as is the case, or while charging.
Battery fires also create different problems for fire departments than other vehicle fires, but in this case it is unclear whether the battery was burning.
They are currently investigating the source of the fire, but when batteries catch fire, the fire usually covers the entire car as it is at the bottom. They are also usually difficult to put out, but in this case the fire service took control of it in seconds.
It will be interesting to look at the results of this investigation.
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https://electrek.co/2022/05/23/tesla-model-y-caught-on-fire-break-the-window-to-get-out/