Fire Guy
After more reports of Tesla vehicles bursting into flames emerged this week, the electric automaker has released a software update to ensure that batteries stay safe, have a long shelf life — and don’t erupt into fireballs.
“Although fire incidents involving Tesla vehicles are already extremely rare and our cars are 10 times less likely to experience a fire than a gas car, we believe the right number of incidents to aspire to is zero,” reads a statement obtained by Engadget. “As we continue our investigation of the root cause, out of an abundance of caution, we are revising charge and thermal management settings on Model S and Model X vehicles via an over-the-air software update that will begin rolling out today, to help further protect the battery and improve battery longevity.”
Fire! Fire!
Earlier this year, Futurism reported of a Tesla Model S seemingly catching fire in a Shanghai parking lot. While the exact cause of the fire remains unknown, a different Model S caught fire in a Hong Kong parking lot earlier this week. Reuters reports that there have been “at least 14 instances of Tesla cars catching fire since 2013, most of them after a crash.”
So what about the company’s newest international success, the Model 3? That model has yet to catch fire — or at least be caught on tape doing so.
READ MORE: Tesla rolls out Model S and X battery software update after Hong Kong fire [Engadget]
More on Tesla fires: Parked Teslas Keep Catching Fire for Seemingly No Reason