Too early to tel why he chose to commit suicide the way he did, unless someone uncovers a "suicide note", or some message he shared with others.
Musk tweeted right after the incident:
Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upward
But the surprising lack of damage caused by the blast is also a function of the apparently low-grade explosives used in the incident, according to experts who spoke to The Washington Post.
A blast caused by fireworks and fuel might have had a similar effect had it been in a different vehicle, said electric-vehicle experts Richard Meier of Meier Fire Investigations and Karl Brauer, executive analyst at ISeeCars.com.
Videos of the event indicate that a lot of heat was generated by an initial explosion, followed by a subsequent fire in the bed of the truck that could have come from batteries overheating, noted Brauer.
“You didn’t really have an explosion as much as you had a bonfire,” he said. “I’m not at all convinced that the Cybertruck being so strong is the reason it blew upward.”
Kenneth Cooper, special agent in charge of the San Francisco division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told reporters Thursday that it’s too early to know how the detonation started.
The driver of the truck is believed to be a 37-year-old Army Special Forces soldier named Matthew Livelsberger, although his identity has not yet been confirmed because the body was burned beyond recognition. Authorities said he probably died by suicide.
Investigators have so far mostly found evidence of fireworks, fuel and sport-shooting targets, Cooper said, adding: “The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience.”
Videos of the event and pictures of the blown-up vehicle seem to suggest that pressure from the blast was released through the windows and the bed of the truck, Brauer and two other experts said.
Meier said the evidence seems to indicate a “low-grade” explosion that would have generated a lot of heat and fire. But there was no blast wave that could break or shatter nearby materials, he said, whereas a so-called “high explosive,” such as C-4 would have built up pressure faster than what could be released through the windows and torn the truck apart.
If the vehicle had not been coated in steel, “you may get a little more shrapnel coming off of it, but generally speaking [the explosion] would not be that different,” added Meier.
Investigators have not yet said whether the electric vehicle’s batteries were part of the explosion.
When electric vehicle batteries catch fire, they can be difficult to put out because they heat the other battery cells around them, leading to a chain reaction of fires, according to Sean DeCrane, health and safety director at the International Association of Fire Fighters — and extinguishing this requires lowering the heat of the other battery cells by dousing them with water.
However, unless the vehicle is in a confined space or parked close to other electric vehicles, the danger from such a fire would mostly be limited to anyone who is in the vehicle or immediately near it, DeCrane said.
In the case of the Las Vegas Cybertruck, “it seemed to me that the body was still intact and the detonation failed the windows,” he added.
