chickensevil
Active Member
While I can't speak for the EU vs US version differences, when Elon has got up to talk about the Model S as it relates to Safety, he has come around to clarifying at least on the US side what the "star ratings" mean and how that actually matters. What it comes out to is a probability for injury. When you look at it from that perspective specifically (which is really the only perspective that should matter when talking about getting in an accident... this avoiding accidents is nice and all that, but my opinion is that they should separate out the two into independent ratings of ability to minimize damage in an accident and ability to avoid an accident altogether) the Model S stands out overall as one of the least likely to sustain an injury in a given accident.
Like this:
I cannot believe that this would be worse than anyone else on the market. If Tesla is indeed red in the chest area than everyone else must be red as well... that or show me the physical car that took that test so I can compare the two images, because I have never seen a physical car take that test quite as well as the Model S does. The reason for this is the combination of strength in the aluminum door and the fact that the bottom frame of the car is able to transfer the force of the impact through the battery pack into the rest of the car thereby minimizing the amount of force directly applied to the door area. This results in minimal intrusion into the driver compartment. I think they saw something like a 15-20% loss of space and most other cars end up in the 80% loss of space range... meaning you have a pole and door right on your lap and into your side.
So something seems amiss in their test that other cars score better in this area when this is one area that the Model S specifically should be excelling in. Overall the safety results of the EU test were decent enough I'm sure there are things to improve upon as with everything, but safety has always been one of their chief design concerns. Specifically because, if nothing else, Elon drives this car, his family drives this car (he has 5 boys), his friends drive this car, and he has stated that he could never live with himself if something bad were to happen to his family or friends due to something they could have done better as far as safety in this car.
At least in the US tests (And I do understand that there are slightly different methods used between the two testing bodies) no other car has scored a lower probability for injury.
Like this:
and driver chest got red in side pole test
I cannot believe that this would be worse than anyone else on the market. If Tesla is indeed red in the chest area than everyone else must be red as well... that or show me the physical car that took that test so I can compare the two images, because I have never seen a physical car take that test quite as well as the Model S does. The reason for this is the combination of strength in the aluminum door and the fact that the bottom frame of the car is able to transfer the force of the impact through the battery pack into the rest of the car thereby minimizing the amount of force directly applied to the door area. This results in minimal intrusion into the driver compartment. I think they saw something like a 15-20% loss of space and most other cars end up in the 80% loss of space range... meaning you have a pole and door right on your lap and into your side.
So something seems amiss in their test that other cars score better in this area when this is one area that the Model S specifically should be excelling in. Overall the safety results of the EU test were decent enough I'm sure there are things to improve upon as with everything, but safety has always been one of their chief design concerns. Specifically because, if nothing else, Elon drives this car, his family drives this car (he has 5 boys), his friends drive this car, and he has stated that he could never live with himself if something bad were to happen to his family or friends due to something they could have done better as far as safety in this car.
At least in the US tests (And I do understand that there are slightly different methods used between the two testing bodies) no other car has scored a lower probability for injury.