Mitchell Weston, chief investigator at the Harris County Fire Brigade office, said that although the batteries were “generally safe”, the effects at high speeds could result in “thermal runaways”, resulting in an “uncontrolled contact” between cause different materials in the batteries.
The thermal run-off could lead to fires, as well as a “battery reignition”, even after an initial fire was extinguished, the safety council warned in its report. Mitsubishi Electric warns that ‘thermal runaways could lead to catastrophic consequences, including fire, explosion, sudden system failure, costly equipment damage and possible personal injury.’
The firefighter’s office investigated the fire in the crash, a spokesman said. Constable Herman said his department was working with the federal authorities to investigate.
He said law enforcement officials were in touch with Tesla on Saturday for guidance on a few things, but declined to discuss the nature of the talks.
Tesla, which has dissolved its liaison officer, did not respond to a request for comment.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk had earlier on Saturday promote a recent safety report of the company and wrote on Twitter that “Tesla with Autopilot is now approaching 10 times the chance of accidents than the average vehicle.”
Tesla, which calls Autopilot on its website the “future of driving”, says the feature enables its vehicles to “automatically drive, accelerate and brake within its lane”. However, it warns that ‘current Autopilot features require active driver oversight and do not make the vehicle autonomous.’
In 2016, a driver in Florida died in a Tesla Model S that was in Autopilot mode and could not brake for a tractor that made a turn in front of him.