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Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

reuters.com

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Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#51

Post by gamblor956 »

outworlder wrote: post #12

> Tesla is also facing a federal field investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board after several Model X and Model S owners across the globe said their cars burst into flames yawn Are other automakers suffering the same investigations? https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=812639 > Each year, from 2014 to 2016, an estimated 171,500 highway vehicle fires occurred in the United States, resulting in an annua…

No other car company claims to sell the safest car ever made.

When you make outlandish statements like that you have to expect increased scrutiny.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#53

Post by meritt »

markrote wrote: post #8

The Walton Family also happens to own much of First Solar, a competing provider of photovoltaic cells.

I'm sure they're also rampant short sellers in cahoots with Big Oil. Give me a fucking break.

Tesla has had a lot of growing pains and they'll be a better company when you guys stop dismissing every single criticism and actually hold the company and Musk accountable for their missteps.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#54

Post by ryder9 »

nwah1 wrote: post #15
outworlder wrote: post #12

> Tesla is also facing a federal field investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board after several Model X and Model S owners across the globe said their cars burst into flames yawn Are other automakers suffering the same investigations? https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=812639 > Each year, from 2014 to 2016, an estimated 171,500 highway vehicle fires occurred in the United States, resulting in an annua…

There's hundreds of times more non-EVs on the road, so the question would be the proportionate level of fires.

any figures or citations?

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#55

Post by perl4ever »

markrote wrote: post #8

The Walton Family also happens to own much of First Solar, a competing provider of photovoltaic cells.

Isn't the largest shareholder Vanguard, by far? My impression based on a cursory Googling is that Vanguard has about 130 million shares, whereas the largest individual shareholder, Jim Walton, only has about 10 million.

In fact all of the top 10 shareholders of Walmart have more shares (>10M) than any of the Waltons, it appears:

The Vanguard Group, Inc.

SSgA Funds Management, Inc.

BlackRock Fund Advisors

Fidelity Management & Research Co

Geode Capital Management LLC

Northern Trust Investments, Inc.

State Farm Investment Management

Wellington Management Co. LLP

T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

So maybe you should look at whatever the interests of the index fund providers are, and who runs them.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#56

Post by o_p »

c0nfused wrote: post #34
o_p wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teslas bursting into flames is a real risk though.

EVs burn frequently on the internet. Compared to the fema estimate of 171,500 highway car fires per year. https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v19i2.pdf Tesla has contributed 14 total since 2013. I know of at least 2 other cases by others have been reported https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/22/tesla-inv...

Its 171k fires in 2 years not per year. You need the total Teslas vs ICE cars in the road to compare those figures. Even then not sure if its a good comparision because Tesla is on the luxury side, it should be compared with ICE cars in the same price range, not any chinese car with little safety.

Common sense tells me that a big,unstable ion lithium battery at high speeds is not a good idea, gasoline is much less reactive than people think.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#57

Post by driverdan »

the-pigeon wrote: post #29
sxates wrote: post #18

Anyone know details about how the solar panels resulted in fires?

These specific cases, no. But I used to work for a company that made solar components and fires were our biggest fear. The most likely issue is incorrect design or installation due to the complications of DC power. This article goes into details https://iffmag.mdmpublishing.com/solar-panels-and-the-dc-dan... Simply put DC power with enough current to power a home is much more dangerous than AC. And solar power isn't…

> And solar power isn't converted to AC until it gets to the inverter.

Most solar installations now use micro-inverters at the panel. It's possible these installations predate micro-inverters.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#58

Post by elcritch »

gamblor956 wrote: post #46
Clent wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that interesting as well. The article is trying to link solar panel failures to Tesla vehicle failures. They were not born from the same company nor process. It seems whatever generated the story was looking for some segue into how the price is down. The stock price was affected by the market's new knowledge. They both contain words for fire but are otherwise independent and distant events in Tesla's history.…

It was originally SolarCity that did the work, but SolarCity was acquired by and merged into Tesla. The surviving entity was Tesla, so Walmart sued Tesla. (SolarCity's debts actually represent the majority part of Tesla's debt load and is part of why Tesla has been struggling financially despite 19%+ margin on each car sold.)

Is there a good place to find those numbers? We always hear about Tesla debt but not the distinction of solar city debt.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#59

Post by csteubs »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #43
csteubs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talk about putting words in someone's mouth. The original comment merely points out an interesting note in that both parties have their own interest in solar. You make so many specific counter-claims to a simple sentence that it seems like you're responding to the wrong comment.

The post he was replying to was clearly implying foul play, as it would not have any relevance to the story otherwise. What I think is odd is the fact that you parse human language like a machine rather than a human. There is more to human language than the extremely literal interpretation of the words in a sentence. Implied meaning is one of those things.

> The Walton Family also happens to own much of First Solar, a competing provider of photovoltaic cells.

Where is foul play implied in that sentence? To me it reads like more of an aside than an allegation of wrong doing. The stakes of this particular suit feel more "business-as-usual" than malicious or strategic.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#60

Post by [deleted] »

philipkglass wrote: post #26
grecy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a little curious they wouldn't choose to buy panels from a company they own.... don't you think?

First Solar has acted as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm for large ground-mounted solar farms, but they have never been in the rooftop solar installation business like SolarCity. First Solar's panels would also be an unusual choice for a rooftop installation even if a different installer handled the work. Rooftop solar installations typically call for high efficiency panels. First Solar makes…

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