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Comment by graton | Hacker News Reader

I wonder why the person stayed inside the vehicle. Did they not know it was on fire? Were they unable to exit the vehicle as the fire disabled the doors? Some other reason?

It would be scary if the reason is because the fire made it so the doors wouldn't open.

EDIT: The article has been updated since I first posted the question. Now there are reports that it might be a possible suicide type action. But I imagine it is still too early to tell.

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Well, authorities are investigating it as a possible terror attack, and apparently it had "fireworks-style mortars" inside so I suspect this wasn't a garden-variety Cybertruck malfunction.

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/police-treating-vehicle-ex...

Fireworks are the only thing that makes sense.

The videos show a large explosion but there isn't a single window at the front of the hotel that shows damage.

consumer fireworks (1.4g) cannot blow up like this, by design and regulation. fire marshals can and do enforce this at points of sale & distribution

professional fireworks are also regulated to minimize mass-explosion risk.

if fireworks were involved in the explosion, it would necessarily be an improvised device. achieving this level of explosion with consumer fireworks would be difficult. the fireworks are a red herring, imo.

Video of it exploding def shows fireworks going off everywhere, but to your point, trunk looks stocked with loads of diff stuff: https://x.com/BNODesk/status/1874610151959019812/photo/1

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/01/us/cybertruck-fire-trump-hote...

According to this article, there was also "gas tanks and camping fuel" inside the truck.

I want to know more too. My understanding is these vehicles will only light on fire like this if the battery experiences thermal runaway, which means the battery is toast at that point I would imagine? I've heard when the battery goes in a model 3, the doors don't work normally and you need an emergency release. That said, 1 dead 7 injured... I imagine there was more than one in the vehicle?

This isn’t what thermal runaway looks like. Someone set off those fireworks, or they were somehow ignited.

the image in the article is a truck completely engulfed in flames, I'm not sure how you can deduce "not thermal runaway" by that. edit: I see the video now, I see your point

I would imagine the doors run off of the 12v system (or maybe 48v these days?) for safety reasons. The emergency release for the doors is for when that system fails.

The high voltage battery can actually sometimes be completely disconnected from the car during normal use, e.g. when parked and no sentry mode enabled.

The doors in older Model S versions had a single lever that would trigger the electronic window controls slightly before you pull hard enough to mechanically release the door. A complete electrical failure would not make it any harder to get the door open or even require additional thought, although it might be mildly impolite to the window seals and politely a bit more than mildly impolite if the door is closed hard before the electrical system wakes up.

I have no idea why Tesla changed this.

yes, and it looks like this would be a scenario where the battery is totaled (unless fireworks?), which means doors are locked shut from inside and outside.

Electric cars don't burn more often than gas cars. And most electric car fires don't involve the high voltage battery at all, but originate in the 12 volt wiring. That said, high voltage battery fires do happen, and they are much harder to put out.

>Electric cars don't burn more often than gas cars.

But when they do, even the fire department can't reliably take out the fire...

They can, but they need to learn the proper techniques. In a country like Norway with a high proportion of electric cars, I think all fire departments know the drill by now – even if they never had to do it themselves. Most important: Don’t stop fighting the fire the moment it’s out, or it will reignite. You need to keep cooling the battery pack a long time.

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