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Comment by guerrilla | Hacker News Reader

> ICE vehicles catch fire.

It seems like this happened spontaneously. Do ICE vehicles ever spontaneously combust? Disconnecting it from a charge isn't really abnormal use.

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Hyundai recently recalled a ton of ICE cars because they could catch fire. They had the possibility of catching fire when parked.

https://www.consumerreports.org/car-recalls-defects/hyundai-...

GM recalled over 1.4 million vehicles due to fire risks from oil leaks which could happen while the engine was hot and parked.

https://money.cnn.com/2015/10/27/autos/gm-recall-fire/

> About 85% of the fires took place when the car was shut off and there was no one around the car, GM spokesman Alan Adler said.

Pre-emptively recalling vehicles for potential problems is a lot different than those problems actually occurring.

I'm glad the people who need to know these things (ie actuaries) will be making the decisions, not the "yeah, but!" crowd.

Are people ignoring that Tesla's battery pack in Australia has already burst into flames and they had trouble putting it out?

> Pre-emptively recalling vehicles for potential problems is a lot different than those problems actually occurring.

In both of the listed recalls hundreds of cars had self-immolated. In the GM one I personally knew a few people who had their homes catch fire from the car catching fire while parked in their garage.

Yes, I’ve had it happen personally. It damaged a garage it was parked near — thankfully it was parked outside. It was a blackened ruin after, tires had gotten so hot they popped, etc.

What was the cause? That seems unlikely without external cause.

Commonly electrical systems and/or the battery itself in ICEs cause unattended fires.

Yes. Electrical fires are not unusual in ICE vehicles. It's extremely rare that the ICE part catches fire by itself.

this exactly, every recent fire / recall has been because of a short in some electrical system igniting something like the brake fluid, which also exists in EV

Please stop spamming the point that EVs also have brakes. The point was that all cars have the potential to spontaneously catch fire. Nobody has tried to make the point that ICEs are vulnerable where EVs are not, and your attempt to reframe the discussion as such is disingenuous.

no my point is the EVs have far more electrical components, so if anyone is being disingenuous and not pointing out the entire picture it's the people also posting links to articles of ICE cars also catching on fire making people think it was the gas that combusted when it was actually an electrical fault. We have to look at the actual cause. Also I'm not saying EVs aren't the future, but there's still more work to be done in making electrical systems in cars safer, whether it's ICE or EV.

Stationary car combusts, causing over $100M in damages:

https://jalopnik.com/how-one-suv-fire-destroyed-45-million-i...

“Brake fluid leaking from the master cylinder reservoir cap had been reported to enter the vehicles’ automatic braking system (ABS) wiring harness electrical connectors, causing short-circuits, melting, and fires,” the NTSB reported. By 2012, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration knew of at least 260 vehicles that experienced a non-crash related fire.

Last i checked EVs also use brake fluid and they could end up exploding the same way. Please post a link to an ICE vehicle spontaneously combusting while off due to spontaneous combustion of the gasoline contained in its tank.

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking for, or what your point is. Why that specific threshold? Lithium in EVs also doesn't catch fire by itself, it's usually a fault somewhere else in the system first. Most bizzarely, I think you're assuming that I'm taking a side here? Like....there are no sides to take, it's just an article meant as a reply for someone who asked if ICEs ever spontaneously combust.

EVs do have brake fluid, but the brakes are used significantly less in EVs than in ICE vehicles. (Most slowing is done via magnetic resistance from regenerative braking.) Presumable this means brakes in EVs are subject to a lower rate of degradation caused by use.

I had a vehicle catch fire whilst unattended about 20 years ago. The cause was either faulty wiring or a smoldering butt end left in the ashtray. The fire service and the insurer were both happy with this explanation.

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