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Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

teslamotors.com

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Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

#191

Post by VLM »

abalone wrote: post #110

This 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…

Recycling the same astroturfing from the Prius a decade ago. Boring. Try something new, or people remembering last time around are going to LOL not get scared as intended.

Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

#192

Post by gsnedders »

kirse wrote: post #86

I'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…

As others have said — it's the side impact test that makes the Tesla Model S so notable.

There again, the F1 has one major advantage — it has a monocoque, and should therefore to do better than most (unibody) cars on the market. But to make a monocoque out of something like carbon fibre you need a lot of money!

(Good examples of this are the two Audi R18 crashes at Le Mans in 2011: http://www.carmaautolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Rock... is one after a ~200mph crash and spin into crash barrier. He got out on his own two feet. Pretty much everything but the monocoque is gone. Videos can be found on YouTube of both this and McNish's crash. At night, with so little video available, could scarcely tell what car it was…)

Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

#193

Post by toomuchtodo »

mediaman wrote: post #114
toomuchtodo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought several tens of thousands of TSLA shares at ~$17/share when they went IPO; my wife still chides me I didn't buy more.

Assuming at least 20k shares, you made >$2.5mm off that investment, using $340k of capital? Not bad.

Haven't sold all of it, so its not fully realized. Sometimes it pays to go all in.

Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

#194

Post by kmfrk »

trafficlight wrote: post #52
curiousDog wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wow. The windshield doesn't even crack.

You have to consider that there is no engine in the front - just empty space for storage. That changes the game of frontal collisions completely.

Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

#195

Post by dmethvin »

triplepoint217 wrote: post #188
abalone wrote: post #110

This 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…

Does anyone know what the actual voltages are? Just because it is high relative to the usual 12V of cars does not mean it is terrifically fatal. An anecdote to give you a picture of things: Electric arc welders operate at around 60V with a very large amount of current. However the electricity is not particularly the dangerous thing about them, it is the 9000F arc you are making and the molten steel. So to demonstrate…

These are very high voltages. The Tesla is 375 volts and the Prius is 275 volts.

Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

#196

Post by agumonkey »

gambiting wrote: post #190
agumonkey wrote: post #128

Earlier 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 ..

Most cars automatically shut down fuel supply to the engine when a collision is detected. Even if it's just a minor hit the engine can't be started again without clearing the collision warning from the computer.

Thanks, now I wish to know more about the protocols and checks in car controllers.

Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

#197

Post by jcromartie »

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #4

> The Model S lithium-ion battery did not catch fire at any time before, during or after the NHTSA testing. It is worth mentioning that no production Tesla lithium-ion battery has ever caught fire in the Model S or Roadster, despite several high speed impacts. While this is statistically unlikely to remain the case long term, Tesla is unaware of any Model S or Roadster occupant fatalities in any car ever. I can't hel…

There is a meme in the conservative rage-o-sphere that electric car batteries catch on fire all the time.

Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

#198

Post by a-priori »

mikeash wrote: post #49
a-priori wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's see if I remember my high school physics. Making all sorts of assumptions and simplifications here: F = mv / dt (equation of impulse for zero final velocity) F = mg (newton's laws) mg = mv/dt g = v/dt 9.8 = v/0.5 v = 4.9 Therefore, the car can be travelling no more than 4.9m/s at impact to survive. mgh = 0.5mv^2 (initial gravitational potential energy = kinetic energy at impact) gh = 0.5v^2 h = (0.5v^2) / g h =…

Ouch, units, please! Leaving the units out of your physics math is like, well, not wearing a seat belt when driving a car. Anyway, I'm afraid that 0.5 seconds to come to rest is way too long. Toss it into the equations of motion and: d = 1/2 at^2 d = 1/2 9.8m/s^2 (0.5s)^2 d = 4.9m In other words, decelerating at 4 gees for half a second means you decelerate over nearly five meters. I think we're better off starting a…

Thanks, much appreciated. Sorry about the lack of units. If it's any consolation, I included them in the text surrounding the calculations. :)

Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

#199

Post by jcromartie »

sbierwagen wrote: post #31

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.

But it's not the heaviest car ever made. So they're doing something exceptionally well other than making it heavy. I'd imagine much of that weight is in the batteries and electric motors.

Re: Tesla Model S achieves best safety rating of any car ever tested

#200

Post by jbellis »

James_Duval wrote: post #174
lutusp wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With improvement, I was referring to the complexity of cutting someone out of a Tesla and all the no-cut zones that could electrocute passengers, emergency responders, even guys towing wrecks. As an electrical engineer with spacecraft experience, I can say that a car like the Model S isn't likely to electrocute anyone. While extracting someone from a wreck, emergency workers use tools like the "jaws of life", stron…

Would the tools used not be developed? I would've assumed the production of specialised tools for electric cars would be a priority once they become popular.

Presumably, avoiding electrocution of the passenger being extracted is also a goal.
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