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

iihs.org

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

#111

Post by FireBeyond »

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #10

I get why Tesla gets the flak from analysts, it being a public company; But I rarely see an analyst speak about Tesla's impressive record in building safe cars. Especially when there are car manufacturers who try to hide flaws which can lead to catastrophic malfunction or had been caught with cheat devices for emissions test. Also one more thing which is less talked about is Tesla's autopilot being useful for people…

> car manufacturers who try to hide ... or had been caught

Tesla went for years trying to make the _sticker price_ include "four years of gas savings: $3,500", bringing the 3 to $31.5K.

Of course you couldn't buy one for that price. That was fairly deceptive. Then Tesla fans tried to spin it as "trying to bring honesty to the market by looking at TCO"... except while they were happy to mention savings from gas, they didn't mention the cost of installing 240V, and their electricity costs were somewhat... absent.

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

#112

Post by FireBeyond »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #24
dlivingston wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The firewall is the edge of the passenger cabin. There should be no crumpling going on because the perimeter of it is the structural component that ties together the A-pillars and rocker panel structure. If you crumple the firwall you are pushing the dash structure back at the occupants and removing support from the A-pillars allowing them to more easily deform. Getting it to deform 6" or so (I recall that was the nu…

Firefighter / Paramedic here: when we get firewall impingement, we get dash impingement, which can easily result in us having to "roll" the dash up/off an occupant to unpin them with our rescue tools. Modern cars shouldn't impinge the firewall unless many things have gone wrong.

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

#113

Post by hndamien »

helpPeople wrote: post #56
gamblor956 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: this quote is from Tesla, not the IIHS. It's marketing speak and isn't supported by anything in the IIHS's actual public announcement on their most recent vehicle safety ratings. Tesla has received flak in the past for misstating the results of IIHS and NHTSA testing.

Some people seem more accepting of misinformation than others. The whole Mars thing + no 30k electric car after all these years have me immune. Tesla and musk are simply not trustworthy.

You appear to be quite accepting of misinformation. Nobody promised a $30k electric car. It was $35k and they delivered it.

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

#114

Post by kalleboo »

whenchamenia wrote: post #61
kalleboo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally the definition of survivor bias.

No doubt! I crashed violently, twice, at highway speeds, in tiny 80s economy cars. Im fine. They must be safe! /s

You joke but I've literally heard people make this argument about seat belts.

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

#115

Post by SEJeff »

kalleboo wrote: post #43
SEJeff wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask literally anyone who's been in a horrific wreck in a tesla and walked away. They're incredibly safe vehicles. There have been some pretty insane examples of this, such as this one: https://www.autoblog.com/2016/05/06/tesla-model-s-crash-germ...

Literally the definition of survivor bias.

I guess what I was attempting (and admittedly failing!) to say was that Tesla vehicles hold up very well in very bad wrecks. The cars have tons of driver assist / active safety features, but they also have a huge crumple zone due to not having an engine, and an exceptionally low center of gravity due to the battery. There are many cases where people walk away from bad wrecks in a tesla where they'd have been intensive care or worse in most vehicles.

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

#116

Post by monkeywork »

SilasX wrote: post #89
SEJeff wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well when I looked at it a bit later, I was unable to edit the original comment. Kind of makes the point moot don't you think?

You didn't see/care how the post looked for several hours?

having a rough day or are you just naturally an ass? must be nice living in a world where your biggest problem is the fact that someone didn't go back and review a post they made on an internet message board immediately after posting it.... the horrors.

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

#117

Post by m463 »

ajross wrote: post #51
gamblor956 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I rarely see an analyst speak about Tesla's impressive record in building safe cars. Tesla's car safety features are not a major selling point compared to its EV features, and moreover are generally features common to EVs (i.e., additional crumple zones, floor rigidity). Tesla's autopilot still struggles to identify white trucks against a blue sky, and highway dividers, and can't seem to tell when the driver is a…

> make Teslas more likely to crash than other vehicles Citation needed. Which other vehicles? Tesla's overall safety record is quite good. Every car has things it does well and things it does badly, and every other manufacturer gets judged on the safety record on balance. I mean, do you regularly post on HN about, I dunno, Toyota's safety record given the high center of gravity of its SUV offerings that make them "mo…

Well, teslas ARE more likely to crash than commercial airliners, because "everyone knows you are more likely to die driving to the airport than in the plane"

Other than that, tesla does publish some data:

https://www.tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport

That said, people commonly constrain the Tesla comparisons to newer cars or in some other way.

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

#119

Post by thetinguy »

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…

That’s pretty much as strong as other cars in the class.

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

#120

Post by thetinguy »

SEJeff wrote: post #33
baybal2 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One moment you missed. Electric cars are very heavy, and their centres of mass tend to be right below the cabin. Having very strong pillars is pretty much a prerequisite for surviving a rollover in an EV.

Most people tell me the BMW 330i is very comparable to a Model 3, and its curb weight is 3,582 to 3,764 lbs (per BMW). The Model 3's curb weight is 3,627 to 4,072 lbs (per Tesla). That isn't as big of a difference as I'd have expected.

Engines and transmissions are also heavy.
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