A Tesla Model 3 caught fire and went down in several sparky explosions following a traffic accident on the MKAD highway (a.k.a. the Moscow Ring Road) in Moscow, Russia.
Allegedly, the car was cruising in the left lane with the Autopilot turned on. The system failed to register a parked tow truck and hit it in a side-on collision.
The driver, who was 41 and traveled with his two kids, broke a leg and sustained multiple chest injuries. The children suffered head injuries and concussions. All of this is reported to be the direct consequences of the crash and not the explosion, by which time everyone was within a safe distance from the car.
It is also unofficially reported that the driver kept his hands on the steering wheel as prescribed in the manual, despite the autopilot. That said, other sources claim he was momentarily distracted by his children and turned backwards, unaware of the impeding collision. Either way, there has been no official announcement of the reason of the accident. You may watch the video to hear several explosions going off in the wreck’s traction battery.
Likewise, Tesla has not yet commented on the incident. This is not the first time the marque faces criticism because of vehicles combusting after crashes, and it even had to recall and retrofit its models with armor plating in Shanghai and Hong Kong following another such occasion.