Tesla Model S Fails To Get Top IIHS Crash Rating (usatoday.com)

mrspoonsi writes: Shares in Tesla have plummeted more than 13 percent this week after lower than expected deliveries and the Model S only attaining an acceptable result in recent crash tests. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety states: "Tesla made changes to the safety belt in vehicles built after January with the intent of reducing the dummy's forward movement. However, when IIHS tested the modified Model S, the same problem occurred, and the rating didn't change. Although the two tested vehicles had identical structure, the second test resulted in greater intrusion into the driver's space because the left front wheel movement wasn't consistent. Maximum intrusion increased from less than 2 inches to 11 inches in the lower part and to 5 inches at the instrument panel in the second test. The first test resulted in a good rating for structural integrity, while the second test resulted in an acceptable structural rating. The two tests' structural ratings were combined, resulting in acceptable structure and an acceptable rating overall for the Model S." A Tesla spokesperson responded to the IIHS's crash rating in a statement to Forbes: "IIHS and dozens of other private industry groups around the world have methods and motivations that suit their own subjective purposes."

Comments

Motivation

[Anonymous Coward]

""IIHS and dozens of other private industry groups around the world have methods and motivations that suit their own subjective purposes."

yep driver and passenger safety, obviously Telsa's motivations differ significantly.

Re:Motivation

[Tailhook]

Telsa has a history of squabbling with safety testing regimes

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/11/21/1959244/nhtsa-tells-tesla-to-stop-exaggerating-model-s-safety-rating

Re:Motivation

[Rei]

Forbes truncated their quote (and worse, added in a period to make it look like that ended a sentence). The actual quote is:

Tesla's Model S received the highest rating in IIHS's crash testing in every category except for one, the small overlap front crash test, where it received the second highest rating available. While IIHS and dozens of other private industry groups around the world have methods and motivations that suit their own subjective purposes, the most objective and accurate independent testing of vehicle safety is currently done by the U.S. government, which found Model S and Model X to be the two cars with the lowest probability of injury of any cars that it has ever tested, making them the safest cars in history.

The quote appears deliberately truncated to try to make it look like Tesla is badmouthing the IIHS, when they're very clearly just saying that they think the NHTSA testing is more meaningful. While that's a debatable point (I see no realistic reason to favour one over the other), Forbes' truncation is pretty questionable. Of course, what do you expect from an opinion piece that in its second sentence all but calls Tesla a cult?

The reality is that the failed test ("small overlap") is a new test developed in 2012, after the Model S design was already completed; it was never designed to the test, only adapted to try to meet it (apparently unsuccessfully thusfar). To be fair to Tesla, this same issue has hit numerous other manufacturers; only three vehicles at present pass get the best rating in it (two of them new designs from 2017) - and Tesla did manage the second best rating. On the other hand, Tesla wants to build part of its reputation on being a leader in safety, and the small overlap crash test, while new, is meaningful. It's the equivalent of sideswiping a utility pole or similar - a very real type of crash that has previously not been well represented in existing crash tests. Tesla needs to get this right next year.

Re:Beginning of the end?

[Rei]

Tesla goes bankrupt

Oh, are we restarting the old TTAC "Tesla Death Watch" feature, with its regular columns predicting the imminent death of Tesla back in the early Roadster days?

I always get a grin when I thumb through that, now that Tesla is worth as much as a major automaker and just about to start rolling out an EV (Model 3) in production numbers and with a performance/price point widely mocked as impossible just a few years ago... back when they were just starting to roll out an EV (Model S) in production numbers and with a performance/price point widely mocked as impossible a few years before that.... back when they were just starting to roll out an EV (Roadster) in production numbers and with a performance/price point widely mocked as impossible a few years before that....

Meanwhile

[Hamsterdan]

How many GM, Ford, Chrysler, Audi, BMW, VW or other cars have received that rating? GM hid a defect for about ten years, VAG cheated on Diesel emissions. Takata is going bankrupt over airbag defects, but Tesla is the bad guy here.

Seems like the big guys don't want the new guy to succeed.