That's what you get when you think about your product first, and profit second. Musk wants to give the world a great car, not to make profit on cars. This breeds quality we see.
Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
141–150 of 306 posts
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't just "shut down" electric pathways. Not exactly. There is a manual cut that first responders need to make to sever the high voltage circuit before they can work on the car. However there's still capacitors, converters and the battery itself that remain dangerous especially if they've been compromised. As for "fast draining" the battery, where would the power drain to? That's exactly the problem.. NOT giving…
And I guess it's unrealistic to think of a special draining device to be brought on crash sites to exhaust the car battery. All in all, are electric vehicles more 'instable' energy wise when crashed, compared to petroleum based one ? or is it different flavours of similarly sh*tty situations ?
That's a very big question and probably only time will tell. Without getting into it too much, a very basic difference is..
Gas can explode like a bomb but (a) it needs an ignition source and (b) there can be visible signs when the fuel is leaking to let you know to take extra precautions (like spray fire retardant). You can actually get fuel on you and you'll be fine.
High voltage systems don't (usually) explode, but they have lethal amounts of energy stored that can find its way into your body if you complete a circuit. Furthermore in a mangled wreck there aren't necessarily visible signs when a component is electrified. You find out the hard way.
Basically Tesla deserves props for making an extremely strong car. That's what was tested here. But the spin is they're claiming "safest car" while completely side-stepping the high voltage safety issue.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#143I'm sorry, but as a car enthusiast who spent much of his younger years devouring every ounce of Road&Track/Car&Driver mags, the phrase "any car ever tested" is a bit over the top... I'm almost positive the McLaren F1 (a car 20 years older) fared better than the Tesla in safety testing and was capable of being driven away after the testing finished... F1 @ 30mph: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Peloton25/McLare…
I don't know about the F1 these days but the P1 starts at million dollars. I would hope that for anywhere close to that cost they could build in protection for me from my own stupidity when I inevitable try to drive Decker Canyon at full speed. ;)
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
And I guess it's unrealistic to think of a special draining device to be brought on crash sites to exhaust the car battery. All in all, are electric vehicles more 'instable' energy wise when crashed, compared to petroleum based one ? or is it different flavours of similarly sh*tty situations ?
That's a very big question and probably only time will tell. Without getting into it too much, a very basic difference is.. Gas can explode like a bomb but (a) it needs an ignition source and (b) there can be visible signs when the fuel is leaking to let you know to take extra precautions (like spray fire retardant). You can actually get fuel on you and you'll be fine. High voltage systems don't (usually) explode, bu…
> Gas can explode like a bomb but (a) it needs an ignition source and (b) there can be visible signs when the fuel is leaking to let you know to take extra precautions (like spray fire retardant).
And (c) if it's a diesel car (very common in europe), good luck getting it to explode.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
The goal of a crash test is not to keep the car intact, it is to keep the driver intact. On "keep the car intact", today's cars do way more badly than those of the 1950's.
> On "keep the car intact", today's cars do way more badly than those of the 1950's.
I don't think that is true.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great link. What is the rationale for reporting death rates in terms of vehicle-years, rather than rate per mile traveled? What if SUVs just get driven less (due to poor mileage, only being taken out in the snow...)
> What is the rationale for reporting death rates in terms of vehicle-years, rather than rate per mile traveled? Vehicle-years can be determined directly from vehicle registration data. Miles traveled would require a lot more guesswork.
With the increasing prevalence of smog checks as a registration renewal requirement, and the inclusion of a highly detailed electronic vehicle record (see for example California's BAR-90 and subsequent records, Washington and several other states have similar records), odometer data is available and is used heavily by insurance companies in assessing risk for a large number of drivers.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't just "shut down" electric pathways. Not exactly. There is a manual cut that first responders need to make to sever the high voltage circuit before they can work on the car. However there's still capacitors, converters and the battery itself that remain dangerous especially if they've been compromised. As for "fast draining" the battery, where would the power drain to? That's exactly the problem.. NOT giving…
And I guess it's unrealistic to think of a special draining device to be brought on crash sites to exhaust the car battery. All in all, are electric vehicles more 'instable' energy wise when crashed, compared to petroleum based one ? or is it different flavours of similarly sh*tty situations ?
There isn't really a good way to quickly and safely dump all the energy from a battery the size of the Tesela's. Think about it: to drain in an hour, the battery would have to source 65kW continuously, converting all that energy into either heat or light somehow.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
About that, do cars attempt to shut down engines, fuel intake and electric pathways when detecting a collision ? I remember Liquid Gas vehicles having an emergency outlet to avoid fire/explosions. In Tesla's case that would be cutting the battery off the circuit and maybe putting it into a 'fast drain' mode ..
Fast draining those batteries would likely cause an enormous amount of heat.
This.
Batteries have internal resistance. They're generally rated for a certain level of drain (amperage), which, if exceeded, will go over the thermal limits for the battery.
In the case of a Tesla, you'd risk being fried (current) _and_ roasted (heat) at the same time.
Better simply to keep the energy contained.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#149This is all very good PR.... BUT. The critical safety concern with the Tesla is....... You guessed it. The high voltage system. It can kill you or a first responder with a touch. It's not just about batteries catching fire, although that's gotten a lot of press lately. A chief concern during a Tesla accident is the exposure of high voltage components. It's a big concern for first responders. Read it from the horse's…
> I hope very much the industry can improve electrical safety over time.
With regard to the electrical aspects, isn't the safety record on these cars perfect or close to perfect up until this date? That means it's only going to get worse. That does not mean electrical cars are unsafe, it just means there isn't much of a record yet.
My expectation is that there will over time be a small number of electricity-related accidents involving first responders and passengers and that they will be enough to fuel concern trolls until the end of time. That the electrical problems will be so enormous that they dwarf the massive safety gains from better passenger protection of the sort NHTSA is interested in (and frankly, anyone who is about to get hit by an oncoming SUV is interested in) seems awfully counterintuitive.
Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't just "shut down" electric pathways. Not exactly. There is a manual cut that first responders need to make to sever the high voltage circuit before they can work on the car. However there's still capacitors, converters and the battery itself that remain dangerous especially if they've been compromised. As for "fast draining" the battery, where would the power drain to? That's exactly the problem.. NOT giving…
And I guess it's unrealistic to think of a special draining device to be brought on crash sites to exhaust the car battery. All in all, are electric vehicles more 'instable' energy wise when crashed, compared to petroleum based one ? or is it different flavours of similarly sh*tty situations ?
85KWh is a lot of energy. Back of the envelope calculations puts that at enough to boil around one metric ton of water from 25C.[1] If you wanted to rapidly drain a Tesla you would have to dump that energy somewhere.
That might actually be plausible for firefighters to do[2], but I doubt the battery itself would withstand being drained anywhere near fast enough for an emergency situation. It would probably find some interesting way to fail if you forced it to discharge that fast (bypassing all the safeguards).
[1] 3.06e8 J / (4.181(J/(g * k)) * 75K) = 976,000g ...I probably got that wrong, it's been a long time.
[2] I mean, their main job is getting rid of large concentrations of heat, right? ;)