This past Saturday, news broke about a Tesla crashing into a parked tow truck and bursting into flames on a motorway in Moscow, Russia. Particularly notable about the incident was that after the initial crash, explosions racked the already burning electric car.
A number of developments have emerged about the story so far, which clarified initial misconceptions about the incident, from the make of the vehicle to the injuries incurred by its occupants. With this in mind, Teslarati has compiled this quick guide about what is currently known about this crash and its ensuing fiery aftermath.
The crash
A video of the accident taken from what appears to be a security camera showed the electric sedan passing a first stopped vehicle that had broken down and catching the corner of a tow truck that was sticking out into the adjacent lane. In a statement to CrimeRussia, Aleksey Tretyakov, the vehicle’s owner, noted that he had been traveling at 100 km/h, the speed limit in the area. The impact from the collision was enough to push the tow truck forward into the central dividing wall.
A video of the exact moment the Tesla crashed into the tow truck could be viewed below.
The make of the car
Initial reports that emerged following the accident tagged the Tesla as a Model S. With more videos of the crash’s aftermath emerging online, it now appears that the electric car involved in the accident was a Model 3, at least based on the shape of the vehicle’s taillights and headlights.
The fire
Videos of the Tesla on fire and the explosions that followed emerged on the heels of the accident. These clips, which were separate from the footage of the electric car crashing into the parked tow truck, showed a vehicle that was already ablaze. Two explosions could be seen in the videos, which resulted in parts of the electric car flying to the air.
Quite interestingly, the explosion within the vehicle seemed to have happened after the tow truck that the Tesla crashed into had been moved (the heavy vehicle does not seem to be in the vicinity when the explosions happened). As observed by Tesla Motors Club member KarenRei, the nature of the explosion in the Model 3 looked notably similar to an explosion that happens when an airbag explodes. A video of such an incident could be viewed here.
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The injuries
Initial reports of the injuries that resulted from the accident pointed to the driver of the Tesla and his two children being severely injured. Russian media outlet IXBT.com, for one, noted that Tretyakov was in “intensive care” due to the crash. Later reports would prove this to be false. Speaking with CrimeRussia, the Tesla owner noted that both of his legs were broken due to the accident, but his two children were “practically not injured.”
Update: While CrimeRussia noted in its coverage of the incident that the Model 3 driver had two broken legs as a result of the crash, it appears that the news agency misquoted the Tesla owner’s statements. Vladimir Grinshpun, a native Russian speaker, noted in a message to Teslarati that the Tesla owner clearly stated during a video interview with the news agency that he had one broken leg and a broken nose due to the accident. A video of this interview could be accessed here.
A video depicting what appeared to be Tretyakov hobbling away from his vehicle as his two children walked ahead of him has also been aired on Russian media outlet Russia 24.
On Autopilot
Being a Tesla crash, it was not surprising to note that several reports promptly related the crash to the potential use of Autopilot. Discussing the incident, longtime TMC member mongo noted that since Teslas in Russia are imported through a third party, there was likely no Navigate on Autopilot support in the area. Thus, functions of Autopilot would likely be limited to basic features such as lane-keeping.
This was mentioned by Tretyakov himself, who noted that he was using a “driver-assist” feature and a “trimmed” version of Autopilot when the accident happened. The Tesla owner added that he was holding the wheel in the moments leading up to the crash, though he also admitted that he did not notice the parked tow truck on the road. Based on the video of the Tesla’s crash, it appears that either the vehicle or Tretyakov engaged the brakes just before the car hit the parked truck.
Tesla’s statement
Tesla is yet to issue a formal statement about the incident, though the electric car maker has recently published its most recent vehicle accident and fire data. Tesla notes that from 2012 – 2018, “there has been approximately one Tesla vehicle fire for every 170 million miles traveled. By comparison, data from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and U.S. Department of Transportation shows that in the United States there is a vehicle fire for every 19 million miles traveled.” It should be noted that Tesla’s data set includes instances of vehicle fires caused by structure fires, arson, and other things unrelated to the vehicle, which account for about 15% of Tesla vehicle fires over this time period.
H/T JPR007 on Twitter.
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Tesla has revealed plans through permit submissions for a massive Robotaxi charging hub in Austin, Texas.
Tesla plans to build the Supercharger hub in multiple phases, with the second phase potentially introducing wireless induction charging, something the company has been developing for the Robotaxi fleet.
Initially, 48 Tesla Robotaxi-geared Superchargers will be built on a lot just across from the St. Elmo, Texas, Service Center. There are about 80 additional spots that will not be impacted by phase 1 of the construction process.
Filings show that the second phase of the project will turn those 80 additional spots into wireless charging for Robotaxi, but it might be an error. The Key Notes state that item 3 is listed as “V4 Charging Cabinet to Support 80 Wireless Chargers in Phase 2. However, the drawings point to V3 Cabinets that are already tied to Superchargers:
There are roughly 128 total spots in the lot, but it is unclear if they will all be used for charging based on what appears to be some sort of typo in the blueprint.
A new Robotaxi fleet charging hub is coming soon to Austin, Texas!!
Permits have been filed for the installation of 48 (V3) stalls in a vehicle storage lot across the road from Tesla’s St Elmo service center. pic.twitter.com/xwRgSWDqht
— MarcoRP (@MarcoRPi1) August 18, 2026
This is among the first Robotaxi charging hubs Tesla has started to develop, as it currently has four others planned throughout various areas: one in Phoenix, one in San Antonio, another in Irving, which will serve the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and another in Las Vegas.
These projects are necessary as Tesla expands its Robotaxi program. Now that preparations have started for the public launch of Cybercab, Robotaxi will likely be expanding aggressively, especially over the next two to three years.
Last night, The Information reported that Tesla was planning to launch Cybercab as soon as the end of August. Hours later, Tesla then announced it was launching a competition for fans to potentially ride in Cybercab during its first public rides.
Tesla’s plan to expand its charging infrastructure in the regions where Robotaxi will initially operate is great preparation for the expanding service. There is still a lot to do, including launching the Cybercab on time.
Tesla got its largest order for the all-electric Class 8 Semi yet, a 500-unit order from Einride AB, a Swedish trucking company.
Einride made the announcement this morning following its second-quarter earnings call. The company said it plans to use 500 Tesla Semi units on its fleet intelligence platform, called Saga AI. The deployments will serve large companies like Amazon and will extend Einride’s electric freight network across logistics routes in California, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, and Georgia.
🚨 Tesla has received a MASSIVE order from Swedish freight company Einride AB, which placed an order for 500 Tesla Semi trucks
Tesla’s biggest order for the Semi yet! pic.twitter.com/PrtLp5yzvh
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 18, 2026
The deployment is being carried out in several phases over the next two years as Tesla ramps production of the Semi at its dedicated production facility in Sparks, Nevada. Einride will receive its first Semi units in September.
Saga AI
Saga AI is Einride’s dedicated fleet intelligence platform. It enables scaled adoption of electric trucks for freight use and allows shippers to integrate electric capacity without the operational burden or capital risks of managing a fleet. This helps integrate cost-efficient logistics and makes budgeting and forecasting much more accurate.
Tesla Semi’s Adoption
The Tesla Semi is now gathering large-scale clients past those who have helped the company operate a Pilot Program to gain initial information and feedback from real-world drivers.
Perhaps the biggest and most notable is that of Frito-Lay and PepsiCo., who have worked with Tesla for the past several years to dial in the finer details of the truck, including its efficiency and operation-related components.
Tesla Semi gets strange-but-understandable comparison from Jay Leno
There has been tremendous progress in that time, and it even catalyzed Tesla to make some design changes, which were unveiled earlier this year.
But Einride CEO Roozbeh Charli says his company’s partnership with Tesla will continue to push those things forward:
“This deployment is yet another proof point that we can execute at the scale our customers demand. Working closely with Tesla to bring next-generation Semis into active operations quickly and at scale is a testament to the strength of that partnership, and how quickly this technology is maturing from promise to daily operations.”
Additionally, Dan Priestley, the Director of the Semi Program at Tesla, said the partnership is ideal due to Einride’s focus on sustainable transport:
“Einride is at the forefront of sustainable freight, and we are thrilled to deepen our relationship with them through this order of 500 Semis. EV heavy trucks provide lower costs per mile from fuel savings, reduced maintenance, and better uptime over diesel trucks. These savings increase further through operational efficiency when deploying EV trucks at scale, and we are excited that Einride recognizes this and look forward to supporting their deployments.”
Elon Musk
India tells Elon Musk’s X to “Follow the Law” in latest censorship update
Elon Musk says X now exposes government censorship, but India’s secrecy laws complicate that promise.
Elon Musk’s promise to make government censorship requests on X “clearly visible” is running into a wall in India, where the law forbids the very disclosure Musk is promising.
On August 15, Musk responded to an update from X’s open-source algorithm team by writing “Any censorship required by governments is now clearly visible.” The claim referred to a change X pushed two days earlier to its public xai-org/x-algorithm repository, which now includes a controversial filter written directly into the code. The filter suppresses posts from 665 accounts flagged by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court from appearing in the For You feed of any viewer located in Brazil, unless the viewer already follows the account. The election tied to the filter is scheduled for October 4.
India’s government wasn’t as impressed, and responded on Monday that “X will have to follow the law of the land,” in response to Musk’s transparency push covered by the Times of India. The problem is structural rather than political. India issues content blocking orders under Section 69A of its IT Act, and Rule 16 of the accompanying 2009 Blocking Rules requires those orders to stay confidential. Publishing an India equivalent of the Brazil filter, naming specific accounts and citing specific government orders, would itself violate Indian law. Government use of Section 69A has grown from roughly 6,000 orders a year between 2018 and 2023 to about 24,300 in 2025, according to a Tech Times report.
The contrast puts Musk’s transparency pledge in an odd spot. It works largely as advertised in Brazil, where electoral law requires disclosure and X can point to specific account IDs and a specific court order in public code. It cannot work the same way in India, where the law requires the opposite. X users in India will keep seeing content disappear from search and their feeds without any public accounting of why, even as X tells the rest of the world that its censorship compliance is now inspectable.
This isn’t the first time X’s fights with a national government have shaped how the platform operates. Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered X to suspend the accounts of sitting lawmakers and journalists in 2024, a standoff that cost X its Brazilian revenue for months and froze Starlink’s local accounts before the investigation into Musk and X was closed in March with no evidence of wrongdoing found. X also sued California over a state law requiring moderation disclosures, arguing the mandate itself violated the First Amendment.
Whether India’s government pursues anything beyond a public statement remains to be seen. For now, the mismatch between what X can legally publish and what different governments legally allow it to publish is the real story behind Musk’s seven word claim.
Tesla reveals plans for Robotaxi charging hub in Austin
Tesla Semi gets its largest order yet
