Nandini Roy Choudhury, writer
Brief news
- A Tesla Semi truck was involved in a single-vehicle collision on I-80, requiring 50,000 gallons of water and aerial fire retardant to extinguish the fire.
- The NTSB is investigating the incident, which closed a portion of the highway for 15 hours.
- Tesla’s driver-assistance systems were not operational during the accident, and production of the Semi is expected to begin by late 2025.
According to a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday, a Tesla Semi electric truck was involved in a single-vehicle collision last month that necessitated the use of 50,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire and necessitated the dumping of fire retardant by aircraft.
The NTSB is currently conducting an investigation into the accident that took place on Interstate 80 in California, west of Lake Tahoe. The NTSB stated that the vehicle’s enormous battery was cooled by CAL Fire’s efforts to extinguish the flames, which prevented the fire from extending beyond the accident site and prevented it from reigniting.
According to the report, the Tesla vehicle, which was being operated by an employee, was en route from a facility in Livermore, California, to the company’s battery factory in Sparks, Nevada. A portion of the I-80 was closed for a period of 15 hours as a result of the incident.
The Semi vehicle design was initially unveiled by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at an event in November 2017, with the assurance that it would be introduced to the market in 2020. The company is currently in the process of constructing production lines at its Nevada facility, but it has not yet commenced the production of the vehicles in high volume.
Tesla stated in its second-quarter earnings report in July that the Semi factory is in the process of being prepared and is expected to commence production by the end of 2025.
The NTSB report verified that Tesla’s driver-assistance systems, which are commonly referred to as Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in the United States, were not “operational” at the time of the Semi collision and fire.
Source : CNBC News
