Tesla all but ignores man after mysterious Model Y blaze on California highway

A Twitter user, Bishal Malla (@bishal_malla) recently posted on the site about his experience when his Tesla Model Y caught flame on the California highway (via InsideEVs). According to Malla, he was about to merge onto the highway when he heard a noise from the floor of the vehicle. Thinking it was simply a flat tire, he stopped to inspect the outside of the car, and he noticed smoke emanating from the bottom of the vehicle — where the battery pack of the electric vehicle is situated.

Out of concern for his safety, Malla reportedly abandoned his Model Y and called emergency services who were unable to extinguish the resulting blaze. Malla is unsure of why his Model Y caught fire, but Tesla's handling of the situation has seemingly just added insult to injury.

In a subsequent Reddit thread, the Model Y owner said that he contacted the Tesla service centre "more than ten times," but the roadside assistance customer service team were unable to assist. One agent Malla spoke to told him to bring the car — which was completely written off and unusable — to a nearby service centre. Malla's insurance has since salvaged the vehicle, but he has yet to receive assistance from the Tesla service centre about an incident that occurred over a month ago.

Malla is just one recent example in a long line of people dissatisfied with the service they have received from Tesla's service centres, and spontaneous hardware failures. One recent story we reported on involved Tesla service centres removing radar hardware from owners' vehicles without consent, and a recent class-action lawsuit claims that Tesla's OTA updates tanked battery life and range on their Model S and Model X vehicles.

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