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Thermal runaway prevents rescue of 3 victims in crash, authorities say (www.nbcbayarea.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This accident could be a scene in a horror movie.

I'm not a Tesla fan by any measure, but I edited the headline for this post. The original headline made it seem like a specific feature of the Cybertruck trapped the victims, but then the article explains it was really that the battery was burning so fiercely that the police just couldn't free them. ~~The deadly feature of the accident was the lithium battery, which is common to many makes and manufacturers of EVs.~~

UPDATE: the battery fire obviously didn't help, but according to new reporting it turns out that the Cybertruck really did trap the victims inside.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So, obligatory Fuck Tesla.

But, the next thing for me is acknowledging the terrible physics quandary of storing huge amounts of energy in a readily accessible form, without any chance of it releasing in an unintended manner.

Electric car makers are under a lot of pressure to provide more and more range, which has lead to them cramming such strong batteries in.

But again, we can take this as a critique of normal, non-fascist electric car companies that won’t be heading to the second iteration of Nuremberg trials.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

But, the next thing for me is acknowledging the terrible physics quandary of storing huge amounts of energy in a readily accessible form, without any chance of it releasing in an unintended manner.

Electric car makers are under a lot of pressure to provide more and more range, which has lead to them cramming such strong batteries in.

Even a garage door spring can murder you horribly if it fails. However, it's a manageable risk that works well for the application. I think lithium batteries are a significant risk and badly suited to the application of long range personal vehicles. Personal BEVs should just have small batteries intended for overnight charging from residential power connections.