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by powerbroker 404 days ago
I was driving the Model X a few years ago and ended up T-boning a minivan at ~45 MPH. Minivan rolled over. Our airbags deployed. Post accident, I discovered my glasses remained on my face and it seemed that the airbag did not even reach my body -- with the webbing taking the bulk of the impact. Car took months to repair and ~$30,000.

Not bad when you consider we were driving to the hospital at the time, and the accident prevented us from reaching the hospital as well as preventing us from calling on an ambulance.

3 'assists' that the car gave us:

1. Crumple zone is bigger;

2. Battery made our vehicle heavier;

3. (speculatively), the 'crumple parts', crumpled more and costed more -- leading to less (none) bodily injury.

2 comments

The Model S and Model X were the first two vehicles to get 5 star crash safety in every category from the US and the EU. Supposedly broke the testing machines (leading to Elon saying 5+ stars)

They are among the safest cars on the road.

> They are among the safest cars on the road.

Though that needs a bit of salt for very heavy cars since they makes the occupants safer and everyone else less safe.

Still pretty good overall, but not ideal.

I remember that when the release versions about 10 years came on the market, but I have not heard those claims in quite a while from any credible sources.

I am certainly not authoritative. My vague recollection is that offset crashes Tesla didn't do quite as well at, so since then Tesla's ironclad safety rating has since waned

I bet Volvo had it first, not tesla. And now any new expensive car has 5 star safety rating thanks to progress in car design and EU laws.
Tesla had it first.

There are still extremely few vehicles that have five stars in every single category and sub category in both the us and eu.

The cyber truck is the first Tesla vehicle that doesn’t.

This is one reason why I got a cybertruck. Tesla safety, now with even better protection! There are some crash test videos of a cybertruck getting T-boned by a metal sled at near highway speeds. Ever since seeing those, we always drive the kids around in the truck.

Main downside is the hostile behavior from the public, but it’s a small price to pay.

You might consider getting an APC next?

Might be possible to run over smaller cars without even noticing it, let alone pedestrians.

If someone made an electric one with self driving I’d consider it!

Not for the running over of others, of course. That wouldn’t be very nice.

>Supposedly broke the testing machines

That doesn't sound like a good thing at all? Then again, I'm hardly surprised that the guy who tried to build an aluminum tank and sell it as a car would claim it is.

As the story goes, the machine that broke is a press that is supposed to crush the car roof.

The car roof withstood the pressure, the press did not. It's supposed to happen the other way around.

Sorry how is this story relevant to the article?