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[speculawyer]

Much more interesting than stupid celebrity tweet-fights, engineering corporations dissing each other.

"Unfortunately, the pack architecture supplied to Boeing is inherently unsafe," writes Musk in an email to Flightglobal.

"Large cells without enough space between them to isolate against the cell-to-cell thermal domino effect means it is simply a matter of time before there are more incidents of this nature," he adds.

Both Boeing and Tesla use batteries fueled by lithium cobalt oxide, which is among the most energy-dense and flammable chemistries of lithium-ion batteries on the market. While Boeing elected to use a battery with a grouping of eight large cells, Tesla's batteries contain thousands of smaller cells that are independently separated to prevent fire in a single cell from harming the surrounding ones.

"Moreover, when thermal runaway occurs with a big cell, a proportionately larger amount of energy is released and it is very difficult to prevent that energy from then heating up the neighboring cells and causing a domino effect that results in the entire pack catching fire," says Musk.

An aerospace-capable version of Tesla's battery has been developed for use in SpaceX's Falcon 9 space launch vehicle. SpaceX, also owned by Musk, competes with Boeing/Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance for customers. Boeing has thus far declined offers of assistance from Tesla and SpaceX, says Musk.

"They [Boeing] believe they have this under control, although I think there is a fundamental safety issue with the architecture of a pack with large cells," writes Musk in an email. "It is much harder to maintain an even temperature in a large cell, as the distance from the center of the cell to the edge is much greater, which increases the risk of thermal runaway."

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/elon-musk-boeing-787-battery-fundamentally-unsafe-381627/

I think Elon Musk can be an arrogant jerk and this seems to be an example. But in this case, I can't really fault him. Boeing's 787 issue has created a huge public black-eye for Li-Ion batteries and that can hurt Elon's business. So he is making strong statements that Boeing fucked up. And to his credit, I don't know of any fire problems that have occurred with any Tesla cars or Space-X vehicles. (unlike Fisker cars that have had significant fire problems and the Volt which had some minimal fire problems that only occurred in testing situations.)

 

[sans_pants]

musk is such a bauce

 

[speculawyer]

musk is such a bauce

I like some stuff he does and hate other things. That shirt is awesome though.