NHTSA Asks Tesla For More Information On Recent Model Y Fire In Canada

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has contacted Tesla for more information regarding an incident in which a Model Y caught fire in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The agency told Reuters that it “is aware of the incident and has reached out to the manufacturer for information.”

We reported on the incident on Wednesday, May 25, which was filmed and posted to YouTube by a business that was located near where the fire happened. In the video, the driver, identified as Jamil Jutha, reported that his Model Y started smoking and then died, making it more difficult for him to get out.

Read More: Tesla Driver Claims He Had To Kick His Way Out Of Model Y That Burst Into Flames In Canada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgZf-auOZxI

“I literally just pulled up to the stop, put on my left sign, and then all of a sudden it said ‘Error! Error!’ And then all of a sudden I see smoking and I’m like oh my God, what the f#@k!” said Jutha in the video. “I couldn’t even open it, everything’s electric, so everything stopped. Door couldn’t open, I couldn’t put the window down, so I just said ‘Alright, I’m going to kick through it.”

Fortunately, the driver managed to escape the vehicle, seemingly with no injuries. He claimed, though, that he had owned the vehicle for just six months when the fire occurred.

As we noted on Wednesday, under normal circumstances, Tesla doors are opened using a button near the top of the handle. This pops the door open and lowers the frameless window slightly to prevent damage to the glass. When the electrical system dies, however, the button does not work.

Since that is how people normally interact with the door, when there is an emergency, they sometimes report feeling trapped in the car, as did Jutha. There is, however, a separate latch in the vehicle that can open the door whether or not the electrical system is working. The separate nature of the button and the latch, though, and the fact that the latch’s existence is not intuitive enough for everyone to find it might suggest that separating them is a design flaw.