What's an active bonnet?

[smaxwell]

Sorry, this is probably a dumb question.

Heard reference to an active bonnet on the Model S here: Crash Test Safety Report on Tesla Model S from EuroNCAP - TSLA

Sounds like its a safety device. Anyone got any details?

 

[robby]

The bonnet is the hood. When the car senses it is going to hit a pedestrian, it raises the hood to increase the distance between the aluminum body and hard parts below. This increases the distance over which the aluminum can crumple before it hits something hard. In a nutshell, it aims to reduce the risk of serious injury to a pedestrian.

Check this video at 1:17. The clip starts late but you can see the hood is raised for the impact:

 

[Larry93428]

Smax, that was a good question. Thanks for asking and thanks for the answers.
~Larry

 

[patn]

That's just fantastic. I assume that feature started with the cars that have the front facing parking sensors?

 

[Just a Reader]

I wouldn't have thought that the Tesla requires an active bonnet at all. After all, usually the issue isn't the bonnet itself but the solid motor block right underneath.

 

[tom66]

I wouldn't have thought that the Tesla requires an active bonnet at all. After all, usually the issue isn't the bonnet itself but the solid motor block right underneath.

There's a significant aluminium and steel crash structure underneath, which could be harmful to a pedestrian. And anything heavy and imcompressible in the frunk (such as a spare tyre?) could also cause problems.

 

[randompersonx]

That's just fantastic. I assume that feature started with the cars that have the front facing parking sensors?

I could be wrong, but I think this is only on the currently shipping european models, but it was not on the cars before, and is not in the USA.

This feature was not mentioned until this very very recent euro crash test.

 

[breser]

I could be wrong, but I think this is only on the currently shipping european models, but it was not on the cars before, and is not in the USA.

My theory is that only cars with a 7 in the restraint slot of the VIN have this. I don't believe anyone has had one of these vehicles delivered yet. They only started showing up in VIN assignments for European and Australian orders a few weeks ago. This might also be that Motor Trend's P85D frunk picture is missing the second latch.