Model 3 July 1 accident and side air bags

[Tam]

Were seat belts in use by all occupants?

They would argue that regardless of whether a seatbelt is used or not, side airbags should not fail to deploy in this particular scenario.

If seatbelt was not used, the jury might reduce the injury compensation but it'll still cost Tesla a lot to recall the failure-to-deploy-side airbags for the rest of the fleet.

 

[KenC]

The test below might shed some light on side airbags behavior:

It looks like side airbags don't deploy with frontal collisions.

They do for side collisions.

But they didn't test a rotational scenario where the first frontal collision becomes then a side collision next.

The lawyer needs to subpoena or get an expert witness on side airbag deployment behavior and video a rotational frontal then side collision.

Seeing the pedestrian and cyclist tests were interesting. I didn't realize they could pass those tests yet.