A driver died in the city of Buckeye, Arizona after the Tesla they were driving crashed and burst into flames, according to local station Fox10 Phoenix — a horrific accident that again mars the already dubious safety record of CEO Elon Musk’s electric automotive company.
The Tesla, an unknown model, crashed at an intersection near the edge of a quiet subdivision shortly after 5pm on Tuesday, according to the outlet. The driver, the only person inside the car, died at the scene.
The fire required a hazmat crew to help put out the flames, caused by a damaged lithium battery in the throes of a fiery runaway thermal reaction, which are notoriously tough to extinguish by typical means.
Outstanding questions on how the accident occurred — was it driver error, or perhaps the company’s infamous self-driving software? — puts a damper on whatever positive news is coming out of Tesla, which has been beleaguered by lawsuits and eye opening reports about its cars’ safety.
Back in August, Tesla had to settle a $329 million lawsuit stemming from a 2019 Tesla collision that killed a 22-year-old woman and severely injured her boyfriend. Tesla’s Autopilot was found to be partially to blame for the incident. In September this year, Tesla settled two lawsuits in California where the Autopilot was indicated to be at fault in two separate fatal incidents, also in 2019.
This in addition to the increasing public attention to how Tesla designs its doors, which are now under federal investigation for a faulty design that can make them inoperable or hard to open in the event of an emergency.
The car company is now facing several more lawsuits due to the flawed doors, including a fresh one just filed in Washington State this week for a January 2023 crash that left one woman dead and her husband with severe burns to his legs.
The other thing weighing down Tesla is the faltering debut of its Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas and San Francisco, California earlier this year. It’s been a disorganized roll out for the Robotaxis, which have crashed numerous times since they were introduced in June — not to mention that a Tesla safety supervisor was caught sleeping behind the wheel of a vehicle while it was driving the streets of San Francisco. Yikes.
Maybe Musk should stop trolling literary writers like Joyce Carol Oates’ on the social media platform X and get back to the Tesla factory floors; the car company clearly needs his attention and time.
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