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Updated with video from reporters on-site at the bottom of the post! Late Sunday night, four Tesla Cybertrucks caught fire in a Seattle holding lot near 2nd Ave S & S Spokane St, just five minutes from the local Tesla dealership. Initially, reports indicated two burning Cybertrucks, but as the fire spread, the number grew to 4 Cybertrucks. Investigators have offered no details as to whether this was arson or another case of a Tesla Cybertruck bursting into flames spontaneously. See video from the scene in the full article.

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[-] cupcakezealot 9 points 12 hours ago

it's a tesla so it should automatically be concluded that it was a spontaneous battery fire.

[-] randon31415@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago

Musk found out that the most recent batch had battery issues where they would spontaneously explode.

So he paid a bunch of arsonists to go out an torch a bunch of Cybertrucks so that he could have plausible deniability.

[-] undystains@lemm.ee 8 points 13 hours ago

Teslas are going to be expensive to insure.

[-] caboose2006@lemm.ee 57 points 19 hours ago

Imagine making a car so bad that when 4 burn up you can't tell if it was arson or just them exploding cause they're bad.

[-] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 17 points 19 hours ago

Can you also imagine seeing a Tesla burn, and since you are very anti-Musk the cops accuse you of Arson and your principle defense is, 'but your honor, my client did NOT burn the car. It just went up by itself!' and that is what gets you off.

[-] Neondragon25@lemm.ee 13 points 17 hours ago

Your honor, in my clients defense, it be like that.

Fuck, you right. Case dismissed.

[-] Wilco@lemm.ee 12 points 16 hours ago

Batteries overheating or arson?

Option 3: Justice

[-] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 2 points 11 hours ago

Option 5: insurance scam

[-] vvilld@lemmy.world 33 points 21 hours ago

I'm asking for a fictional novel I'm writing. I'd like to describe my character in detail rigging a Cybertruck to burn but making it look like it was a spontaneous battery fire. I intend my character to believably get away with this crime.

Can anyone help me with detailed steps how this fictional character would fictionally accomplish this feat. Fictionally, of course.

[-] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 20 hours ago

That character could use employee diagnostic access into the cars as they are always on the Internet. SSH into them, get into the battery controller and do myriad things. Set the thermal management into permanent heat mode. Disable thermal management 100% for the next time the car is driven so it can’t cool the batteries (good for getting rid of pesky rodents like muskrats that try to live in them.) Mess with the charge controller in general so it overcharges, undercharges. You name it. All sorts of fun things one could add to that book depending on your plot.

Make sure while your character is hacking the battery controller though, that they set the car stereo to play Dragula by Rob Zombie at full volume. For effect.

These idiots were dumb enough to design Teslas like computers rather than cars, so a whole lot of stuff was designed like a crappy cell phone rather than the proven design principles of automotive engineering.

[-] lonerangers1@lemmy.world 6 points 21 hours ago

idk, maybe a soda can of thermite and a sparkler it the right spot. not sure of any details, just something I read, in a book

[-] undeffeined@lemmy.ml 6 points 21 hours ago
[-] vvilld@lemmy.world 7 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

I did. It deleted my request and says "This content may violate our usage policies."

edit: I'm probably on a list somewhere now...

[-] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 5 points 20 hours ago

Ask deepseek then.

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[-] leadore@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Looking at the videos and reports, first the dumpsters I mean trucks were not actually that close to the fence where they could be reached through it or have something thrown through it to reach them. The fence is heavy duty dense chain link and wasn't tampered with. A witness who saw the fire start said no one was nearby, first it started sparking then burst into flames. So unless someone did it via software or some other clever way, I'm assuming this was a spontaneous battery combustion that spread to nearby vehicles.

[-] melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 17 hours ago

if they could do it via software, why did only 4 go up?

[-] leadore@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Good point unless they only had the ability to access a particular one, some code or something.

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 20 hours ago

Haha, four "spontaneous" battery fires. Yes, that's what happened. Close the investigation.

[-] davidgro@lemmy.world 9 points 19 hours ago

Or one that spread to three more cars. Fire is known to do that kind of thing.

[-] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 8 points 18 hours ago

"Fire spreads?" - Elon with a look of visible confusion after ordering his lots be filled to capacity with rolling lithium dumpsters.

[-] reiterationstation@lemm.ee 2 points 18 hours ago

I mean, with these trucks maybe.

[-] prole 11 points 21 hours ago

I would not put it past Musk to have put a "self-destruct" function hidden in the code for these things, and is remotely killing them so they can blame it on protestors (also, take the insurance money).

[-] reiterationstation@lemm.ee 3 points 18 hours ago

He said he can remotely access them all. So, you might be on to something.

[-] lonerangers1@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago

Just like the pager attack, or in silicon valley with the hooli phones. I figure musk could turn these things into self placing IEDs he can trigger remotely with a software patch. Maybe some discharge parameter change or something.

[-] jecxjo@midwest.social 121 points 1 day ago

Maybe they became self aware and could no longer live with themselves knowing their family history.

[-] P00ptart@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago

Daddy said he loves em, but is negligent.

[-] match@pawb.social 3 points 18 hours ago

"Cybertruck" is too normal to be the name of one of Musk's kids

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[-] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 72 points 1 day ago

I love that the truck is so shitty we don't know if ppl blowing them up or they blowing themselves up.

[-] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 9 points 21 hours ago

Designed so bad they commit seppuku.

Definitely for sure a spontaneous battery fire. Couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to commit arson on some low-poly neofash shitboxes. No sir.

[-] Kalysta@lemm.ee 1 points 12 hours ago

At this point? Insurance money

[-] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 37 points 1 day ago

And if anyone saw any evidence to the contrary... No we didn't.

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[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 58 points 1 day ago

This cracked me up so hard. The videographer knew what the were doing.

[-] TK420@lemmy.world 13 points 23 hours ago

I wish billboards were illegal. 1, they are distracting while driving and 2, this is a load of crap. There is not any evidence that god exists.

[-] teft@lemmy.world 10 points 21 hours ago

They’re illegal in Maine. I never saw one outside of television until i was fully an adult.

[-] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 3 points 18 hours ago
[-] HaveMeOnYourPodcast@lemmy.world 8 points 21 hours ago

Seriously. Billboards going away would restore so much beauty to the world.

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[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 25 points 1 day ago

It’s funny either way. In case it’s arson, though, I hope whoever did it gets away clean.

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this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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