Russian motorway stops for Tesla fire

A major Russian motorway was brought to a crawl last week when a Tesla caught fire after crashing.

It’s understood the Model 3 was in “Autopilot” mode when it crashed into the back of a tow truck servicing another stricken vehicle outside of Moscow.

Local media reports Russian businessman Alexey Tretyakov was travelling with his two children, whom received minor injuries while he suffered a broken leg.

The Model 3 burst into flames shortly after the crash, with media outlet Zvezda 

reporting the EV was initially speculated by police to have been in Autopilot, which Tretyakov confirmed.

“According to a law enforcement source, the Tesla was probably driving on Autopilot and couldn’t recognize the tow truck in front of it,” the report says.

Tesla’s latest second-quarter safety review cites that one of its vehicles have had a fire in 170 million miles of driving compared with the one in every 19 million miles of travel in the US alone.

The company also says it registered one crash for every 3.27 million miles driven, including with Autopilot engaged, which drops to 2.19 million miles driven per accident without the Autopilot feature activated.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US, there is one crash for every 498,000 miles driving in the States.