Tesla Half.
Courtesy: Tesla
A bicycle collision that occurred last month Tesla The semi-electric truck required 50,000 gallons of water to extinguish and a plane overhead to dump flame retardant, according to a preliminary report released Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The crash, which occurred on Interstate 80 west of Lake Tahoe, California, is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). CAL Fire worked to extinguish the flames, cool the vehicle’s large battery to prevent it from reigniting and prevent the fire from spreading beyond the crash site, the NTSB said.
According to the report, the Tesla truck was driven by an employee from a warehouse in Livermore, California to the company’s battery factory in Sparks, Nevada. The incident resulted in a partial closure of I-80 for 15 hours.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk first showed off the design of the Semi truck at a November 2017 event and promised it would be available in 2020. Production line facilities are under construction in Nevada.
Tesla said in its second-quarter earnings report in July: “Preparations for the Semi factory continue and production is expected to begin by the end of 2025.”
The NTSB report confirmed that Tesla’s driver-assist systems (sold in the U.S. as Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (supervised)) were not “functioning” at the time of the Semi’s crash and fire.
Tesla did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
