It helps that it weighs 4,600 pounds. (More than a thousand pounds heavier than the Volvo S60 they compare it to.) Heavier vehicles always do better-- which is why SUVs survive crashes so well.
Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
31–40 of 306 posts
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#32Elon has mentioned how much they prioritized safety in designing the Model S. I'm glad to hear that their efforts have paid off. This is great news for Tesla as it opens their market even larger as the car can appeal to those seeking safety and not just performance or lower carbon footprint.
> Elon has mentioned how much they prioritized safety in designing the Model S.
Definitely a smart move. If nothing this gives them a smaller attack surface against attacks from Tesla's competitors. You can bet they would have attached like leeches to any minor safety flaw. For example, say, a Tesla car caught on fire and its batteries ended up electrocuting a fireman -- there would be no end in sight to the letters to the editor from "concerned citizens" about fireman's family and how we won't think of his children.
Extra effort for increased safety is definitely worth it, if anything at least for marketing purposes.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#33"the front section that would normally contain a gasoline engine is used for a second trunk." I guess somebody has veto'd "frunk". Oh well.
In the UK & Australia it would be a "froot".
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#34Favorite quote: "[T]he exact number is uncertain due to Model S breaking the testing machine"
They picked a wimpy machine if it broke at 4x. Here's one that can apply 159 tons of force (about 80x the weight of a Tesla). http://www.overbuilt.com/products/car-crushers
Correct me if I am wrong, but that doesn't look particularly like a calibrated testing machine.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#35This is simply unkind to the competition (and to the poles alike): "Tesla achieved this outcome by nesting multiple deep aluminum extrusions in the side rail of the car that absorb the impact energy (a similar approach was used by the Apollo Lunar Lander) and transfer load to the rest of the vehicle. This causes the pole to be either sheared off or to stop the car before the pole hits an occupant." There's winning an…
Is there some kind of diagram that explains how this works? I can't really see how this works just by imagining it.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#36This is simply unkind to the competition (and to the poles alike): "Tesla achieved this outcome by nesting multiple deep aluminum extrusions in the side rail of the car that absorb the impact energy (a similar approach was used by the Apollo Lunar Lander) and transfer load to the rest of the vehicle. This causes the pole to be either sheared off or to stop the car before the pole hits an occupant." There's winning an…
> There's winning and there's crushing the opponents. Crushing the opponents while your car remains uncrushed in the test (or the least crushed). That's what you get when you ask the rocket scientist to make you a car.
If you ask a rocket scientist to make you a car that passes the crash test ratings alone, they'll build you a tungsten dump truck.
If you're going to win, you might as well reach the destination without noticing that you've had a collision.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#37It helps that it weighs 4,600 pounds. (More than a thousand pounds heavier than the Volvo S60 they compare it to.) Heavier vehicles always do better-- which is why SUVs survive crashes so well.
I don't know much about the mechanics or engineering of the Model S, but I'm going to take a gander and say that much of that extra weight comes from the battery pack (and other parts of the non-traditional drivetrain), which isn't a (huge?) factor in a crash test (though I could be wrong).
Just checked - yep - the battery weighs an estimated ~ 545kg or 1200 lbs [1].
I'd expect the structural components to actually be lighter than competitors, given that they're fabricated with aluminum vs steel.
[1] http://www.teslamotors.com/fr_CA/forum/forums/model-s-batter...
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#38I've always found the star safety ratings confusing especially when I've noticed compact cars getting the same stars as large cars.
I'd like to just see each model ranked by number of fatalities per mile driven. Wouldn't that make a lot more sense?
Is such a statistic available anywhere?
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#39This is simply unkind to the competition (and to the poles alike): "Tesla achieved this outcome by nesting multiple deep aluminum extrusions in the side rail of the car that absorb the impact energy (a similar approach was used by the Apollo Lunar Lander) and transfer load to the rest of the vehicle. This causes the pole to be either sheared off or to stop the car before the pole hits an occupant." There's winning an…
Is there some kind of diagram that explains how this works? I can't really see how this works just by imagining it.
Not exactly a diagram but the a video of the test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz2FMfv-CSc
A bmw 3 series (not full frontal): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XG8BQt4sHY
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#40I've always found the star safety ratings confusing especially when I've noticed compact cars getting the same stars as large cars. I'd like to just see each model ranked by number of fatalities per mile driven. Wouldn't that make a lot more sense? Is such a statistic available anywhere?
They exist [1] but can be misleading because different kinds of people buy different kinds of vehicles. So muscle cars and 4x4s have higher crash rates than minivans and economy sedans mainly because of the people that drive them.