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
#2This 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 roof earned a higher strength-to-weight ratio score than any other fully electric vehicle that IIHS has ever tested.
Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3
#3Contrast 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 metrics are very much targets.
Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3
#4This 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…
In a rollover the glass might encounter a sharp point (ala “ninja rocks”) which exerts impact on a very small area causing failure, no? Or is their glass capable of absorbing these impacts?
Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3
#5This 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?
Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3
#6This 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…
Static load is a nice number, but that's not what car safety test should be about - car crash is a rather violent dynamic event. I guess most common situation is rolling of the car, with possible stop at some wall with roof absorbing most of the impact.
I am not sure tests of such an event would be still so favorable.
Or to put it differently - that's an impressive achievement of a situation that will never happen to a Tesla driver. What about performance in crash situation that might actually happen?
Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3
#7This 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.
Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3
#8On a slight tangent (although it is mentioned in the linked article) I'm glad the IIHS started paying more attention to headlights.
For a while there certain vehicle manufacturers were putting design aesthetic above functional headlights, and even some that didn't had mediocre headlights.
Since IIHS started dinging vehicles for having bad headlights things seem to have genuinely improved in a noticeable way. As a driver that has to drive on the same road as these vehicles (glare/etc) I am happy.
Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3
#9This 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…
The roof strength test is performed "by pushing an angled metal plate down on one side of the roof" (https://www.iihs.org/ratings/about-our-tests#roof-strength-t...). So it is the metal body structure that is tested here, not the glass in the center of the roof.
Re: Tesla earns its first-ever safety award from IIHS for Model 3
#10I 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 with disabilities although Tesla hasn't added any specific features for people with disabilities AFAIK.