The 1970s: Disco. Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Ford Pinto fires. The last put Ford squarely in the crosshairs of automobile safety. Now automotive site FuelArc has compiled and published statistics it says show Tesla’s Cybertruck is substantially more likely to kill occupants by fire than Ford’s Pinto. The Cybertruck versus Pinto report is sure to raise controversy.
Cybertruck versus Pinto—17 times more deaths suggested
FuelArc says the chances of dying as a fire fatality in a Cybertruck are 17 times higher than for the Ford Pinto occupants. It bases its projection on comparing the number of Pinto fire deaths per 100,000 vehicles, to fire deaths per 100,000 of Cybertrucks.
Of course, Tesla has yet to produce 100,000 units, so the outfit used a proportional system to reach its conclusions. FuelArc notes Tesla doesn’t publish official delivery figures for all its vehicles. It then estimates “34,438 Cybertrucks have been delivered to customers as of Jan. 1, 2025. I arrived at that number through a variety of means, including piecing together public reporting.”
If you recall, the Ford Pinto is a real “blast from the past”—and not in a good way. The Pinto became infamous for its safety issues, particularly its rear-mounted fuel tank, which made it highly susceptible to fires in collisions. Sadly, this design flaw led to at least 27 fatalities. Ford was accused of putting profits ahead of people’s safety, facing billions in lawsuits as a result. The Pinto recall didn’t just make headlines—it reshaped automotive safety regulations, becoming a pivotal moment in consumer protection history.
Please don’t shoot the messengers. In this Cybertruck versus Pinto report, we are reporting the news.
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##RVT1196b
No worries. Once Mr. Musk succeeds in purging the people who are responsible for tracking those pesky safety issues and incidents from our government, the number of incidents should drop to zero. Problem solved.
Hardly worth anyone’s time to respond.
I agree but I just had to respond to Joseph A. Phebus…so tired of the liberal left’s constant misinformation and hate mongering.
Hey JP, as a former owner of a 70s Pinto, this is truly a 5 alarm fire.
Now, I can’t remember the actual year of my Pinto but I have the original sales slip in my Limestone Cave. Maybe I should have put it onto a thumb drive, or in the cloud but alas, I’ll go down the mechanical elevator later this evening into my Limestone Cave where I store my paper data and search for the registration and sales slip. I can get it to you in the next 4 or 5 months because it is a lifetime of banker boxes in my Limestone Cave. If only I had a computer.
Perhaps if the article said how those folks died it would be clear it wasn’t the cyber truck that killed them. One guy deliberately blew himself up in a cyber truck. Can’t blame the truck for that. Three people were killed in a cyber truck which was driven into a tree at a very high rate of speed in the middle of the night and caught fire. Any vehicle could have caught fire in that instance and many do. The violent crash killed them not the fire. The driver managed to kill them not the cyber truck. Not sure where the fifth person comes from couldn’t find any related info. Just another article printed to try and make Elon Musk look bad because his political views aren’t agreed with.
Elon Musk, like any other citizen, is entitled to his political views and is free to pontificate and blast them out to the world as he sees fit. That’s his first amendment right.
What I have a problem with is his many conflicts of interest in carrying out the tasks he is deputized with, his intimidation and slander of career civil servants, his shutting down of whole departments and agencies with no due process and little oversight, let alone taking the time and effort to understand what these agencies do.
Many of his businesses stand to gain from eliminating the agencies charged with monitoring and regulating them and the billions of federal dollars provided to him via gov contracts
Just wait until the new government says to non believers of their fantasy world…your papers are not in order.
BILLIONS????? Why is it the left always exaggerate to the 1,000 degree?? Hate to tell you, but it only makes you look foolish and your OPINION wortless. If you want to send HAMAS 50 million dollars worth of condoms to turn into bomb delivery systems, write a check, or in your case, establish a “Condoms for Hamas” Go Fund Me Page!!
Finally, JP (we used to have a clown show up here called JP Patches – is that you??), why don’t you build rocket and launch communication satellites at a lower cost than he does?? You know, compete with him.
Huh, what is that you are trying to say??? Stop mumbling!!!
Elon Musk is not purging anybody. He was tasked by our duly elected president to identify government waste, that’s all., and that’s what he and his team are doing! He (Elon) has no authority to hire or fire anyone. It amazes me how the liberal left and liberal media get all crazy over what our president was elected to do…drain the swamp and stop all the wasteful spending of our (the taxpayer) money. I don’t mean this to be a political comment, it’s just that I’m so tired of the Trump haters doing everything they can to discredit him and his administration. Give the man a chance. He’s already done more since he’s been elected than the last administration did in four years
BINGO!!! Well said.
Are you upset because you benefit from waste, corruption and fraud or are you upset because you don’t understand every taxpayer would need to pay $300K to wipe out our current debt?
The key point is “TAXPAYER”
Thank you, Russ and Tina, for the warning. Gee, too bad Ralph Nader is no longer on watchdog assignment. 🙁 Have a great day and safe travels!
This article wasn’t news as much as it was gossip from unvalidated information that was passed on without further research.
Side note: I don’t own, nor do I ever plan to own, a Tesla, so I’m not motivated to defend them at all. I am used to putting together factual cases including cause and effect, and this one doesn’t cut the mustard. Good clickbait though.
I am highly suspicious of any organization that has a fricking dog as one of its supposed contributors/owners. Looking at the original source, you can tell he has a bias against EVs, and particularly Musk. In PSYOP we always look for motivating factors, hidden agendas, and the manipulation of data to influence the outcome. I have no opinion regarding Musk’s Cybertruck (actually couldn’t care any less because I am not buying one) but it readily apparent the author’s stats are suspect. A small sample size is not going to give you data that is actually useful. You have to look at both variables (particularly Discrete vs Continuous) and invariables. He just wanted “clicks” and links, it worked.
Why is the Tesla article even appearing on this site?
This article has nothing to do with the RV industry. It is simply a hit piece on Elon Musk based on flawed data. As soon as the new editors took over this organization, you could see the shift to the left. It’s a good publication and I hate to see it become political.
Enough with the Tesla hate already. This is supposed to be an RV newsletter.
This article sure seems like a hit piece on Musk. It also seems out of place in this “RV” newsletter.
Boycott buying Tesla’s
Go ahead, it is your money.
Well, you sure can tell who the whiny lefties are on this site!!!
On a side note, you could group ALL EVs into the electric vehicle group and it would still be much higher than the Pinto. The funny part is I never knew anyone who died in a Pinto fire yet had several friends and family members who had them.