Tesla Car 'Spontaneously Combusts' While Waiting In Traffic
The video of the incident went viral after being shared by US actress Mary McCormack
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A Tesla vehicle suddenly exploded into a ball of flames “out of the blue” while waiting in traffic on a Californian highway according to reports.
The video of the incident went viral after being shared by US actress, Mary McCormack, whose husband was in the car at the time.
McCormack said her husband was in traffic on Santa Monica Boulevard when the vehicle suddenly exploded into a ball of flames.
She added there was "no accident" and the fires were totally spontaneous and “out of the blue.”
Passers-by helped flag down the driver as he escaped the burning car.
Reports that the car did not have an autopilot feature and was "standard" according to McCormack.
RT reports Sheriff's Lt. William Nash in West Hollywood said that deputies saw smoke coming from the electric vehicle and then fire.
Firefighters were called to extinguish the flames.
Nash said the log entry cited the possibility of a faulty battery, however, McCormack said on Twitter that they hadn’t yet received an explanation for the sudden blaze.
@Tesla This is what happened to my husband and his car today. No accident,out of the blue, in traffic on Santa Monica Blvd. Thank you to the kind couple who flagged him down and told him to pull over. And thank god my three little girls weren’t in the car with him pic.twitter.com/O4tPs5ftVo
— Mary McCormack (@marycmccormack) June 16, 2018
Tesla called the incident “an extraordinarily unusual occurrence” and said it was investigating the matter.
The company is facing intense scrutiny after several incidents involving its vehicles.
Last month, a Tesla burst into flames after a fatal crash in Switzerland.
In the US, investigations were launched after a Model S crashed into a concrete wall and caught fire in Florida, killing two teenagers.
Another Model S, with an autopilot feature, crashed into the back of a firetruck in South Jordan, Utah.
