Battery Safety

[McNasty]

I was just thinking: what if Scout comes with a battery pack that will drop to the ground during severe impact, kind of like when airbags are deployed during an accident? I only thought of this when I read an article about four people dying in a Tesla—not due to the accident, but because they were unable to exit the car while the batteries caught on fire. Just my two cents. Call it "Scouts RPD (Rapid Battery Deployment)".

 

[CarTechGeek]

No need for shouting.

Simply dropping the battery under the car isn't going to save you if it's burning under the car...

A better solution is having doors that are easy to open if something happens to the electrical system. Since doors need to have a manual open mechanism anyway it should be mandated that this is the NORMAL way to to open the doors from inside, so people don't have to go looking for the manual override in an emergency.

This doesn't just apply to EVs. I remember a guy dying from the Hyperthermia because he couldn't figure out how to open the doors in his Corvette when something went wrong with the electronics.

Man and Dog Die in Corvette After Being Trapped Inside - CorvetteForum

Apparently, when the Corvette’s battery cable came loose, the man was unable to manually unlock the doors.

www.corvetteforum.com

 

[McNasty]

No need for shouting.

Simply dropping the battery under the car isn't going to save you if it's burning under the car...

A better solution is having doors that are easy to open if something happens to the electrical system. Since doors need to have a manual open mechanism anyway it should be mandated that this is the NORMAL way to to open the doors from inside, so people don't have to go looking for the manual override in an emergency.

This doesn't just apply to EVs. I remember a guy dying from the Hypothermia because he couldn't figure out how to open the doors in his Corvette when something went wrong with the electronics.

Man and Dog Die in Corvette After Being Trapped Inside - CorvetteForum

Apparently, when the Corvette’s battery cable came loose, the man was unable to manually unlock the doors.

www.corvetteforum.com

Fixed the font. I completely agree with your statement. However, whenever Scout does go that route somewhere in the far off future this might be a way to help cars not become death traps on wheels.

 

[Scoutsie]

Fixed the font. I completely agree with your statement. However, whenever Scout does go that route somewhere in the far off future this might be a way to help cars not become death traps on wheels.

I was reading about a story a couple of minutes ago about an R1T in Asheville that got stuck in mud and crap during the recent flooding and its owner was expecting it to be totaled, and yet he got up to his truck and the doors came open like nothing was wrong. There were sensors that triggered a function to disconnect the battery (which is also shielded, I think? @R1TVT no doubt knows best how this all works) in the event of water incursion. No exploding battery.

 

[R1TVT]

Since battery fires are far less common in EV's per car sold, than gas fires are in ICE cars, per car sold, this isn't a thing.

As far as the Rivian goes, I don't think any disconnect occurred. The R1T has a wading depth of 43.1 inches. It looks like that truck got into a big mud bath during the hurricane in NC and washed away down the road, where it came to rest. Didn't look like it was damaged (other than the mud bath) and had no problem driving away. The physical connections inside the battery pack are completely water tight and contained, and all the external connections are completely sealed. Wading a truck through 43.1 inches of water requires some serious engineering behind the gaskets to the passenger compartment and the seals for the electrical system, pack and the connections to the motors of course.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Since battery fires are far less common in EV's per car sold, than gas fires are in ICE cars, per car sold, this isn't a thing.

This. The breathless "gotcha" reporting of EV fires is not connected to reality when it comes to danger of EVs catching fire.

There have been about 25 fires per 100,000 EVs on the road.
There are annually about 1550 fires per 100,000 gas vehicles on the road.

You're far, far safer in an EV rather than a gas vehicle if your measure of safety is whether the vehicle will catch fire.