this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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95 Tesla deaths have involved fires or Autopilot. How the EV maker fares in fatalities per million miles. (www.businessinsider.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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95 Tesla deaths have involved fires or Autopilot. How the EV maker fares in fatalities per million miles.::Tesla deaths from fires and Autopilot make up 24% of the fatalities in crashes. Learn about the death rates per million miles and vs other cars.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

There's also the fact the batteries they use can spontaneously catch fire (properly known as thermal runaway).

Thermal runaway is not spontaneous. It requires sustained heating, which is typically caused by serious damage. So yes, lithium batteries can catch fire after a crash. But do you know what else catches first after a crash - ICE powered cars (at a rate 10x higher than EVs). And ICE cars are FAR more dangerous, because unlike an EV that burns slowly for hours, an exploding gas tank releases its energy in an instant. Ask a firefighter what’s more dangerous.

There is a Li-Ion battery technology much less prone to thermal runaway (LiFePO4) and some cars use it. It's greatly safer and has about five times greater battery longevity, but it's also about twenty percent heavier. I think it's a fair trade-off to avoid a fiery death.

Most Teslas use LiFePO4 (commonly called LFP) batteries. Most other manufactures still use NMC barriers. Both are far safer than the explosive dinosaur juice that ICE vehicles run on.