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by BeeOnRope 2366 days ago
It was a "pyrotechnic battery disconnect", i.e., basically a type of switch/active fuse using some type of small explosive charge as part of its operation.

Here's the patent for all the gory details:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US9221343

The fact that this part has a "problem" probably means that it was triggered, e.g., maybe some type of false collision detection, short circuit or other failure which ended up triggering the disconnect.