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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

#211
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I remember beign told at the end of the 90's that if you'd bought 100 shares (~$2000) of Microsoft stock at IPO and sold in '99, you'd have cashed in well over a million dollars. Tesla gives me that kind of feeling at the moment. It probably won't be to the same extent as Tesla's market cap is already quite high. So I can't see them splitting quite as much as MS. But on the other hand, I think they're definitel…

The problem with your thought process is that, unlike microsoft and google or apple, most traders and analysts already treat the company as if it can do no wrong. Analysts calling for price targets of 130 or 160 were predicting sales of 200K+ units per year 2-3 years out, which is a really aggressive target given the size of the addressable markets. On the other hand, it was only in 2011-2012 that wall street gave Ap…

the market cap comparison is somewhat misleading because clearly there is substantial probability of Tesla selling many more cars, once they release mass market versions. They have created enormous brand value. if they successfully offer a mass market car, their market cap could easily be higher than Ford.

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

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't understand your response, is this not what the specialised tools would be primarily designed for?

What sort of tools are you envisioning?

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

#213
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN has a raging hard-on for tesla. It's not surprising, but I agree it's ridiculously one sided here. Personally, I hope Tesla fail, and think they will.

Why do you hope for that?

Firstly, I don't believe electric cars are a good idea. Secondly, I absolutely hate the idea of cars so dependent on electronics and software.

My neighbour has an old dumper truck he lets me use, probably 50 or 60 years old. It starts every time, first time. There is literally nothing to go wrong on it.

Now contrast that with a modern car, where you need special tools to access the electronics unlock diagnostics. What about when cars have auto update software over wifi? What about when the government forces car makers to embed their own tracking software into them to monitor and spy on civilians.

Tesla isn't quite as bad as the idiotic self drive cars Google is pressing for (So they can drive you to a google advertiser), but they're in the same bucket of nastiness.

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

#214
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN has a raging hard-on for tesla. It's not surprising, but I agree it's ridiculously one sided here. Personally, I hope Tesla fail, and think they will.

> Personally, I hope Tesla fail, and think they will. Maybe, but you need to realize that the electric car is an obvious and timely technological development, and someone will produce a successful mass-market electric car. Why not Tesla? It's not as though they're making a lot of mistakes.

I don't believe electric cars are technologically better. Lugging a half ton battery around, then waiting for hours for it to charge doesn't seem that clever to me.

Of all the things that are banes of our lives these days, surely it's everything that runs on a battery.

Remember when phones would last a week or so on a charge? Now you're lucky if a smart phone lasts a day on standby. And people call it progress...

So no, I think the idea of having a massive battery in my car is horrible.

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

#215
post #191

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.

While it's true these concerns are probably overblown in the eyes of the public (it's not something they need to worry about). It's absolutely not 'astroturfing' from my perspective (as someone who may need to cut one of these up some day).

I very much appreciate the amount of effort Tesla has put into producing training materials for working with their vehicles.

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

#216
post #77

The lack of critism in this thread is astounding.

HN has a raging hard-on for tesla. It's not surprising, but I agree it's ridiculously one sided here. Personally, I hope Tesla fail, and think they will.

> Personally, I hope Tesla fail, and think they will.

I think that without any kind of justification, this is completely unnecessary for HN, and downmodded you accordingly. Even though I agree that many comments here are one-sided, and haven't considered what the PR statement might be missing.

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

#217
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi there. Go ahead and watch this video from Tesla about how to cut someone out of a Tesla. The very first step is to cut the circuit like you say, but there are a few things you overlooked. Much of the video is concerned with instructing responders how to cut around components that may remain electrified such as the converter and capacitors which, in Tesla's own words, present a "serious hazard of shock" because "th…

Do other car manufactures provide such videos?

I know a paramedic in rural Australia. They get taken to local car dealers to get safety training with electric cars.

As I understand it it's done on a per-model basis, but that wont really work as an increasing number of electric car models end up on the roads. I'm not sure if this is done all over the state/country, or if it's the one local dealer being friendly with the local emergency services.

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

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g

Great video. Pretty clear that both occupant and vehicle fared worse in the 1950s. (Although after a serious collision I doubt many people care much how the car looks.)

You also have to factor in a lot cars in those days didn't have, and weren't required to have seat belts. This safety feature alone has saved thousands of lives regardless of how safe the car is.

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

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with your thought process is that, unlike microsoft and google or apple, most traders and analysts already treat the company as if it can do no wrong. Analysts calling for price targets of 130 or 160 were predicting sales of 200K+ units per year 2-3 years out, which is a really aggressive target given the size of the addressable markets. On the other hand, it was only in 2011-2012 that wall street gave Ap…

the market cap comparison is somewhat misleading because clearly there is substantial probability of Tesla selling many more cars, once they release mass market versions. They have created enormous brand value. if they successfully offer a mass market car, their market cap could easily be higher than Ford.

[deleted]

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

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'm guessing that in accidents, cars very rarely drop on their tops - they either roll and come to rest upside-down, or get hit when they're already turned over/sideways.

The one thing you learn about car accidents is to not make any assumptions at all about how they progress. Cars can get flipped up and land on their roofs easily, and it doesn't take much for this to happen either. It definitely is not the most common accident but it does happen and frequently enough that they test for it.

yeah, but from any meaningful height?

do they really hoist a car upside down to 10, 15, 20, 30 feet and then drop it on its roof? because that's what the OP was referring to.

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