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Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

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Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

#11

Post by SEJeff »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #7
SEJeff wrote: post #2

This is the part that gets me: The Institute’s results also demonstrate the exceptional strength of Model 3’s all-glass roof, which is supported by a very strong metal body structure and helps protect occupants in roll-over crashes. During testing, the car’s roof was able to successfully resist more than 20,000 pounds of force – that’s more than if we placed five Model 3s on top of the car’s roof at once. And, the ro…

Where is that quote from? When I open TFA, I can't even find the word "glass" when I search for it.

Tesla's followup on this: https://www.tesla.com/blog/model-3-earns-2019-iihs-top-safet...

Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

#12

Post by weaksauce »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #7
SEJeff wrote: post #2

This is the part that gets me: The Institute’s results also demonstrate the exceptional strength of Model 3’s all-glass roof, which is supported by a very strong metal body structure and helps protect occupants in roll-over crashes. During testing, the car’s roof was able to successfully resist more than 20,000 pounds of force – that’s more than if we placed five Model 3s on top of the car’s roof at once. And, the ro…

Where is that quote from? When I open TFA, I can't even find the word "glass" when I search for it.

https://www.tesla.com/en_CA/blog/model-3-earns-2019-iihs-top...

Must have been moved from the Tesla press release to the institutes website press release.

Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

#13

Post by black6 »

SEJeff wrote: post #2

This is the part that gets me: The Institute’s results also demonstrate the exceptional strength of Model 3’s all-glass roof, which is supported by a very strong metal body structure and helps protect occupants in roll-over crashes. During testing, the car’s roof was able to successfully resist more than 20,000 pounds of force – that’s more than if we placed five Model 3s on top of the car’s roof at once. And, the ro…

Strength and toughness are different properties in materials science. A ceramic mug is strong enough to support great amounts of weight, but it's not very tough. I would think toughness (and elastic modulus) plays more of a safety role in a roof than strength, because strength comes from the pillars.

Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

#14

Post by baybal2 »

I put to doubt the utility of crash safety ratings.

The survival rates for collisions on highway speeds are in single digits no matter what you do. It's just laws of physics.

Modern luxury sedans have 1m+ crumple zones, and those only make for few percents extra chance at speeds above 60km/h.

Extending crumple zones beyond that is self defeating, as it will only lead to further increase of average car mass, leading to even more violent collisions

Preventing crashes from happening in the first place is far more economically efficient. EU is just few years away from making some forms of ADAS mandatory, and China is realistically talking about centrally controlled "autopilot" being introduced.

Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

#15

Post by dlivingston »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #3

Contrast the good results of the overlap tests with the report (posted on HN awhile back) from the Tesla that rear-ended the corner of a firetruck at ~35mph that had substantial firewall deformation. It's worth remembering that modern cars are very highly optimized for the tests they have to pass. I'm not saying the M3 or any specific car is good or bad, just take the results with a grain of salt because these metric…

I don't think the deformation of that crash is what was relevant; rather, it appears that autopilot failed to act correctly in that situation.

In terms of the "firewall deformation", from what I understand this is exactly what is supposed to happen in a collision: there is a "crumple zone" [0] in modern cars as a safety feature to absorb impact.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumple_zone

Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

#16

Post by SEJeff »

anewguy9000 wrote: post #5
SEJeff wrote: post #2

This is the part that gets me: The Institute’s results also demonstrate the exceptional strength of Model 3’s all-glass roof, which is supported by a very strong metal body structure and helps protect occupants in roll-over crashes. During testing, the car’s roof was able to successfully resist more than 20,000 pounds of force – that’s more than if we placed five Model 3s on top of the car’s roof at once. And, the ro…

and how many model 3s does it take to shatter a metal roof? im not discounting that the claim is impressive, but from a purely safety point of view, wouldnt you expect even more significant forces on this thing in a crash?

Lots of vehicles have less crush strength than the Model 3, and most of them don't have glass roofs. If you recall... the NTHSA testing of the Model S literally broke their machine. The NTHSA said the Model S had the best rollover test (top impact from their machine trying to crush it) of anything they've ever tested.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/videos/a5238/watch-the...

To really answer your question, I've arbitrarily picked a few common vehicles with metal roofs.

The IIHS says the Civic roof withstands 13,195lbs of force: https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/honda/civic-2-door-coup...

A Subaru Outback: 18,533lbs of roof strength: https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/subaru/outback-4-door-w...

A BMW 3 series has roughly the same roof strength as a Model 3: https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/bmw/3-series-4-door-sed...

An Audi A5 is only 16,327lbs of roof strength: https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/audi/a5-coupe-2-door-co...

You get the idea!

Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

#17

Post by semi-extrinsic »

weaksauce wrote: post #12
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is that quote from? When I open TFA, I can't even find the word "glass" when I search for it.

https://www.tesla.com/en_CA/blog/model-3-earns-2019-iihs-top... Must have been moved from the Tesla press release to the institutes website press release.

Makes sense, the language in that quote sounds much more like a company press release. I would have been surprised if the IIHS actually said things like "the exceptional strength". On the contrary, IIHS didn't even find this fact important enough to mention in their press release at all.

Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

#18

Post by imeron »

SEJeff wrote: post #2

This is the part that gets me: The Institute’s results also demonstrate the exceptional strength of Model 3’s all-glass roof, which is supported by a very strong metal body structure and helps protect occupants in roll-over crashes. During testing, the car’s roof was able to successfully resist more than 20,000 pounds of force – that’s more than if we placed five Model 3s on top of the car’s roof at once. And, the ro…

It can also turn orange in certain conditions: https://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+orange+roof

Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

#19

Post by ProfessorLayton »

baybal2 wrote: post #14

I put to doubt the utility of crash safety ratings. The survival rates for collisions on highway speeds are in single digits no matter what you do. It's just laws of physics. Modern luxury sedans have 1m+ crumple zones, and those only make for few percents extra chance at speeds above 60km/h. Extending crumple zones beyond that is self defeating, as it will only lead to further increase of average car mass, leading t…

Most collisions don’t happen at highway speeds and the crash tests are designed accordingly.

Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3

#20

Post by SEJeff »

imeron wrote: post #18
SEJeff wrote: post #2

This is the part that gets me: The Institute’s results also demonstrate the exceptional strength of Model 3’s all-glass roof, which is supported by a very strong metal body structure and helps protect occupants in roll-over crashes. During testing, the car’s roof was able to successfully resist more than 20,000 pounds of force – that’s more than if we placed five Model 3s on top of the car’s roof at once. And, the ro…

It can also turn orange in certain conditions: https://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+orange+roof

It is only the front part, and it is due to being polarized glass, which only manifests when the car is wet. I think it is kind of pretty actually (note that I own a Model 3).
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