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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe video shows a Tesla Model 3 on fire after a collision with a stationary tow truck on Moscow’s Ring Road, reported in August 2019. The reporting describes a fire that followed the impact, not a verified explosion. It does not establish why the fire started, and it does not establish whether the driver-assistance system was engaged in a way that caused the crash.
What the video shows and where it happened
The clip circulated on social media and was written up by Futurism’s Victor Tangermann on August 12, 2019. It shows a Model 3 burning after it struck a tow truck that was stopped on the Moscow Ring Road, known in Russian as the MKAD. The place and the vehicle are well documented in the coverage. The timing matters: this is a 2019 event, and it involved the Model 3 and the Autopilot system as they existed in that model year. It is not a current assessment of Tesla’s vehicles or software.
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What is reported about the crash
- Speed: Futurism reports the car was travelling at approximately 100 km/h (about 62 mph) when it hit the tow truck. This is a reported figure. No measurement from the car’s data or an official investigation is cited.
- Point of impact: Reporting describes CCTV footage showing the car’s front-left nose catching the side of the tow truck. That description comes from the reporting of the footage; the footage itself is not independently reproduced in the article.
- Driver and passengers: The driver is named as Aleksey Tretyakov. Futurism says he reportedly escaped with a broken nose and a broken leg, and that his children suffered bruises. Futurism attributes these injury details to Reuters. The Reuters report was not available to check against when this article was prepared, so treat the injury details as Reuters-sourced reporting rather than confirmed medical findings.
What is claimed about Autopilot
Futurism attributes to the Russian broadcaster REN TV the account that Autopilot was active and that Tretyakov had his hands on the wheel. Those are the driver’s reported statements, relayed through a news outlet. They are not logs from the vehicle, and no independent telemetry or confirmed system-state record is cited in the coverage.
Two things follow from that. First, a driver saying Autopilot was on is evidence of what the driver believed or reported, not proof of the system’s state at the moment of impact. Second, even a confirmed system state would not by itself explain the fire or assign fault. Neither question is answered by the reporting.
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What Tesla has said
Futurism reproduces a Tesla spokesperson’s response to a request for comment: “Thanks for your note,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t have any comment on this but ask that you reference the vehicle fire and accident data published on our website.” That is a referral to Tesla’s general safety material, not an explanation of this crash. Tesla did not, in the reporting, dispute the account or describe what happened.
Why the fire and the cause remain unresolved
No cause-of-fire finding appears in the reporting. No police or investigator conclusion on the crash is quoted, and no vehicle data is described as having been released. Several claims circulate in the wider discussion of this video, including claims that the battery caused the fire or that Autopilot caused the collision. Neither claim is supported by the reporting available for this event, and this article does not endorse either.
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Readers should also note that a single burning car is not evidence about electric vehicles in general. Fire risk across vehicle types is a statistical question, and one incident cannot answer it in either direction.
How to read Tesla’s safety data page
Tesla’s spokesperson pointed readers to fire and accident data on the company’s website. The methodology material linked from that area describes Tesla’s current FSD (Supervised) collision reporting. It states that Tesla does not attribute fault in its reported collision data, and it explains how the current report classifies collision events.
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That page is useful for understanding what Tesla counts and how it defines categories. It is not a record of this crash. It does not describe the 2019 vehicle, identify which software version was involved, or resolve the cause or fault of the Moscow collision. Using it to infer what happened here would go beyond what it says.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Checklist for reading EV fire and crash comparisons
If you see this video used to argue something about electric vehicles or driver-assistance systems, check the following before accepting the comparison:
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- Whether the source is company-reported telemetry or a government dataset, and whether the two are being mixed.
- Whether the time period, geography, and vehicle population match across the figures being compared.
- How the source defines a “fire” or a “crash,” and whether those definitions are the same across the figures.
- Whether a reported speed, injury, or system-state claim is marked as an official finding or as a statement from a party to the incident.
- Whether the source has been checked against the original report it cites.
What this video can and cannot tell you
The footage documents a serious collision and a vehicle fire on a Moscow highway in 2019. It shows a Tesla Model 3 in that event, and it is consistent with the reported details about the impact. It does not show why the fire started, whether Autopilot was engaged in a way that contributed, or what the vehicle’s data recorded. Those answers would require an official investigation or vehicle data that has not been published in the coverage available here.
If you are looking for the reason this car burned, the reporting so far does not give you one. If you are looking at Tesla’s current safety reporting, read it on its own terms, as a description of how Tesla currently counts collisions, rather than as a finding about this event.
Video and reporting from Russian outlets and social media can change as more information emerges, and later investigative findings may differ from the initial accounts summarised above.
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