EV fires and wrecks have folks voicing safety concerns

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revealed this month that is investigating a fatal car crash in which a Tesla, which may have been using autopilot, drove under a tractor trailer attempting to make a turn.

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Also this week, the Wall Street Journal released dashcam footage of a Tesla driving full speed into the back of a police vehicle that was stopped in the road. It collided with other police vehicles on the scene, and the officers are suing Tesla, claiming autopilot caused the crash.

Since 2021, Tesla has been under 11 different NHTSA investigations, all involving wrecks with first responder vehicles. Moreover, NHTSA data analyzed by The Washington Post suggests that Tesla’s autopilot features have been linked to 736 accidents since 2019, including 17 fatalities and 5 serious injuries. Although the autopilot feature was, according to the Post, “involved” in the accidents, NHTSA said a report of a crash involving driver-assistance does not itself imply that the technology was the cause.

It’s not just car wrecks: it’s fires too. Numerous reports have surfaced of EVs spontaneously catching fire. A Tesla Model S burst into flames while charging in a home garage when the owners were sleeping in bed in 2021. More recently, an electric vehicle was the suspected culprit in a cargo ship fire carrying over 3,000 automobiles—nearly 500 of which were electric. The cargo operator declined to specify the manufacturer of the car that started the blaze.

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