Whenever a Tesla is involved in a “newsworthy” story, media is quick to pick up on it and inevitably blame the automaker. That was the case earlier this year after a fire in Dallas, Texas.
The fire took place in late March and the resulting smoke was visible for miles around. After it was discovered a Model Y was in the driveway of where the fire occurred and sustained some damage, the blame was quickly laid at the feet of the electric SUV.
Local media headlines described the event as a Model Y “exploding”, despite the fact the a large portion of the car did not sustain significant damage as would be expected if the car did in fact blow up.
Five months later and the truth has finally come out, with video proof, thanks to Tesla hacker @greentheonly.
Green was able to recover TeslaCam footage from the USB drive located in the vehicle’s glovebox, which clearly shows the fire started in the garage before making the leap to the Model Y.
Interesting that (I presume) the owner was in the car and saw everything, escaping out (the car was plugged so cannot even drive it until unplugging. pic.twitter.com/Zf9OWYR3H6
— green (@greentheonly) August 25, 2021
Green also shared an image of the USB drive showing it was damaged in the fire, but not enough to not be able to recover the footage.
Another photo showed the Model Y’s battery pack. Thanks to its position underneath the car, it appears to have escaped without any major damage, again proving the Tesla did not “explode” like local media claimed.
When confronted with the evidence, Dallas Texas TV deleted the tweet, rather than post a correction.
You can check out more images showing the extent of the damage here.
