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Transportation United States Technology

Tesla Model 3 Achieves NHTSA's 'Lowest Probability' of Injury Ever (thedrive.com) 316

Posted by BeauHD from the safety-first dept.
In a blog post on Monday, Tesla said that the Model 3 has been deemed to have the lowest probability of occupant injury than any vehicle ever tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Drive reports: Since 1979, the regulatory body has implemented the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) which, through a series of tests, ultimately produces a rating for a new-to-market vehicle based on how well it performs in a variety of safety-related tests. Over time the test has evolved to assess the injury to occupants based on data gathered for front, side, and rollover crashes. During the NHTSA's previous tests of Tesla vehicles, the Model S and Model X, respectively, became the two vehicles with the lowest probability for injury, outpacing all other automakers. The Model 3 has now widened that gap as it takes the new number-one position on the leaderboard for the safest overall vehicle for occupants.

The California-based auto manufacturer acknowledges the car's low center of gravity as a major factor in its gracious performance in rollover tests. Similar to The Model 3 places its heaviest component, the battery pack, into the floor, so this helps improve the overall stability and rigidity of the car, making it perform excellently in rollover crashes. Additionally, the automaker gives a subtle nod to its engineering team for their design of the vehicle's crumple zones. Working in conjunction with airbags placed in the front of the vehicle and at the occupant's knees, the Model 3 was able to safely control the deceleration of passengers in frontal crash tests. The NHTSA's assessment involved the Model 3 Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive variant, however, Tesla states that it believes other trims will receive similar results when tested.
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Tesla Model 3 Achieves NHTSA's 'Lowest Probability' of Injury Ever More

Tesla Model 3 Achieves NHTSA's 'Lowest Probability' of Injury Ever

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  • Shorters (Score:2, Troll)

    by Joce640k ( 829181 )

    Keep shorting that stock, guys. We love watching you do it.

    • Considering the stock is under the price it was 4 years ago and the overall market is up over 40% since then, I would say the short sellers are doing pretty well.

      • Re:Shorters (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Sique ( 173459 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @07:02AM (#57450008) Homepage
        Yes, TSLA currently trades at its lowest level since April 2018. But tell you what, GM does also, and Ford trades even lower than that. So whatever the Shorteners are trading, they would gained the same by shortening GM, and they would actually be better off, had they shortened Ford.
        • Not sure what you are talking about. Tesla is trading under what it was in 2014, GM and Ford are terrible stocks as well. The auto business is a terrible business to invest in. I am sure the Tesla shorts are doing just fine, which is why Musk has his panties in such a twist.

  • Does it measure driver attentiveness? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @05:27AM (#57449800) Homepage Journal

    Having many controls that would be buttons in most cars on the touch screen is going to be a distraction for drivers. Even stuff like the headlight controls and windscreen wiper settings are on the screen, meaning you have to glance aside and hit a touch target with no tactile feedback.

    What do the accident stats say? Do we have per-model data on at-fault crashes?

    • Re:Does it measure driver attentiveness? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rei ( 128717 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @06:15AM (#57449878) Homepage

      Turning on and off the headlights manually? Lol. And where's the handcrank for the engine too, right? ;) At least autowipers aren't perfect and occasionally people want to override them (in the Model 3, single swipes and cleaning can be done with the left stalk, this also and automatically brings up the general wiper control menu just to the side of your right hand). But why do you think everyone should be turning their headlights on and off by hand?

      I don't get this desire for "busywork" when driving. Another busywork example I don't get: having to "start" the car. If the car has already authenticated you, why make the driver go through an added step of pressing a button or whatnot?

      As for "glancing aside", a quick test for you. Put your hands on your keyboard. Keep your focus straight ahead, not at the keyboard. Now lift your hands up so that your hands have to actually move to touch a key (go with, say, 2 finger lengths away). Now - still without looking at the keyboard - picture half a dozen random letters and try to type them, with your hands returning fully to that elevated position each time. How well did that go? If you're like a normal human being, the answer is "very poorly". You probably had better success with larger buttons (space, enter), but not with smaller ones. Now put your hands back down in a normal typing resting position (aka, touching the same solid surface as the keyboard) and try again. Trivial to type without looking, right?

      The simple fact is, we can control things in immediate reach of our hands from a fixed reference frame without looking, but when it comes to trying to control "button sized things" that we have to move our hands to reach, it's far harder. Which is why we look. You may believe that you do it without looking in your car, but for most tasks, you don't - start paying attention to yourself when you drive. You look because it's much faster and more accurate to do so.

      Another test. Picture an area about 2 1/2 centimeters / 1 inch square somewhere on the edge of your screen (it helps to have a fullscreen graphic up). Let's even forget about keeping your hands two finger lengths away! Look somewhat the side of your screen so that portion of your screen is in your peripheral. Now try to press that point on the screen. Do this several times. You probably did better than you expected to - simply because that's such a large virtual "button" you were trying to press. Give yourself even a brief glance at your screen and your accuracy will be almost perfect (again, due to button size). However, trying to hit "buttons" toward the centre of the screen, you'll find you have much worse accuracy than on the edges. If you were being bounced around, the centre would be all the worse, even with such a large button size.

      So what's the strategic takeaway from this, in terms of keeping people's attention on the road?

      1) Automate everything you can, so that there's no need to fiddle in the first place.

      2) Tie all settings you can into driver profiles, so there's no need for basic adjustments, only the things that vary on a ride.

      3) Put all frequent interactions on the steering wheel. Change track, change station, change volume, mute, pause, change cruise control speed, change follow distance, voice commands, etc.

      4) Put all "semi-frequent" interactions as close to the wheel as possible, as close to something your hands can physically touch as possible, with as large of a button as possible. Example: against the left or bottom edges of a screen (screen edge acts as a guideline for your hand), with buttons 2 1/2 centimeters / 1 inch square, so that they're very difficult to actually miss.

      5) Put infrequently used / only used when stopped functionality in menus. Make any displays as large as possible so "always on" things such as nav or cameras can be seen easily in your peripheral and so that they're easy to interact with.

      This is, in a nutshell, Tesla's design philosophy.

      As for Tes

      • Re:Does it measure driver attentiveness? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by ThosLives ( 686517 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @06:40AM (#57449950) Journal

        Removing responsibility for driving functions comes with the cost of lost freedom of the driving functions. You are now at the mercy of those who decided how things should function, rather than your own choices.

        It doesn't even matter if the automatic choices are statistically better (e.g., lower crash rates, more efficient driving, etc.); they still impose a loss of freedom.

        Which is better - safer but less free, or more free but less safe? I suppose society at large will make an aggregate decision there, but I'm guessing it will be an emergent choice rather than an informed one.

        As an aside - those crash statistics aren't really comparable because there is inherent selection bias among the drivers. The driver population of Teslas is likely to be a lower-risk population than other vehicles in the first place. You also have to factor in that you're comparing a small number of vehicle models against all other vehicle models. What happens if you compare against other brands individually? Try this report [freep.com] for instance - there are 9 non-Teslas out there with zero deaths per million passenger miles (and several others with more than 100!). Interestingly it is "economy" cars that have higher rates than expensive cars - which supports my theory that the demographic is likely an important factor, not just the vehicle.

        • " You are now at the mercy of those who decided how things should function, rather than your own choices."
           
          Sounds like a certain company with a fruity name. Sadly, large numbers of people are obviously willing to accept that kind of hand holding.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Jeremi ( 14640 )

            Sounds like a certain company with a fruity name. Sadly, large numbers of people are obviously willing to accept that kind of hand holding.

            There's nothing sad about it, for people who aren't computer geeks. Their goal is not to experience computers in all their glorious manifold permutations; they are using computers only as a means to an end. Because of that, they don't want "freedom", they want "something that just works without any hassle" so that they can spend their time completing the tasks they want to complete, and not on managing and troubleshooting a computer's settings.

            For people who are computer geeks and want direct control over

        • Which is better - safer but less free, or more free but less safe?

          But you always have freedom for the cases you might need it, the controls are just slightly less convenient to get to.

          In the general sense that sounds great to have more freedom.

          In practical use automatic headlights are vastly better. I have automatic headlights on my car on an easily accessed switch where I could turn them on/off manually if I wanted - but I just leave the selector in Auto.

          Why would I not? Headlights are better at all time

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by vakuona ( 788200 )

          Removing responsibility for driving functions comes with the cost of lost freedom of the driving functions. You are now at the mercy of those who decided how things should function, rather than your own choices.

          You are driving a car, presumably on public roads. Your freedom is already severely curtailed:
          - You cannot drive on any side of the road you wish
          - You must stop when instructed to by lights
          - You must have a driving license
          - You must be sober
          - You must be at least a certain age
          - You must wear a seatbelt
          - Your car must meet certain emissions requirements (when buying new of course)

          The loss of freedom that Tesla imposes when you buy from them is tiny, inc

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by eth1 ( 94901 )

          Interestingly it is "economy" cars that have higher rates than expensive cars - which supports my theory that the demographic is likely an important factor, not just the vehicle.

          I've noticed this, too, but I think you've got it kind of backwards. I think many crashes are caused by simple poor judgment skills (which also covers things like DUI, phone use, etc.), and those (lack of) skills define the demographic, not the other way around. IOW, if you have poor judgement, you're less likely to be able to hold a better job, and thus likely to have to drive a cheaper car. I suspect this is the main reason insurance companies like to do credit checks.

        • The driver population of Teslas is likely to be a lower-risk population than other vehicles in the first place.

          I disagree. Perhaps you're imagining that people will take better care of a new car, or that people with money are safer drivers, but I see new and expensive cars being driven like crap every time I go out. I don't know if the people who can afford them are elderly and sufficiently past their prime that they can no longer drive correctly, or just entitled and they figure their money can solve any problems they might have by driving like entitled douchenozzles, but I encounter this regularly. Out of the plac

        • The driver population of Teslas is likely to be a lower-risk population than other vehicles in the first place. You also have to factor in that you're comparing a small number of vehicle models against all other vehicle models. What happens if you compare against other brands individually? Try this report [freep.com] for instance - there are 9 non-Teslas out there with zero deaths per million passenger miles (and several others with more than 100!). Interestingly it is "economy" cars that have higher rates than expensive cars - which supports my theory that the demographic is likely an important factor, not just the vehicle.

          That's an interesting link, but I can't help thinking that 0 is a very misleading number to use there, particularly because this isn't deaths per million passenger miles, it's deaths per million registered vehicle years. And consider the methodology:

          "Although the latest numbers reflect 2011 models, the study included data from earlier-model year vehicles as far back as 2008 if the vehicles weren't substantially redesigned before 2011. Including older, equivalent vehicles increases the exposure and thus the

        • Touch screen is an obvious cost-cutting measure.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Eloking ( 877834 )

        I don't get this desire for "busywork" when driving. Another busywork example I don't get: having to "start" the car. If the car has already authenticated you, why make the driver go through an added step of pressing a button or whatnot?

        In case you bump the acceleration pedal by mistake by turning around to reach the childrens who are already fighting about their Nintendo 3DS again?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rei ( 128717 )

          You have to shift into gear either way.

        • What does that have to do with starting the car or turning on the headlights manually?

          PS: If you want to fix the kids it's much better to have an autopilot setting to keep the car steady while you do it.

      • Re:Does it measure driver attentiveness? (Score:5, Informative)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @07:14AM (#57450054) Homepage Journal

        Turning on and off the headlights manually?

        The auto lights aren't perfect, on any car. It's not just a simple on/off with light level detection, it's the high/dipped beams.

        I don't get this desire for "busywork" when driving. Another busywork example I don't get: having to "start" the car. If the car has already authenticated you, why make the driver go through an added step of pressing a button or whatnot?

        Well in Tesla's case it's because the door locks are not very secure so they had to add a PIN to start the car as a second layer of defence. The less snarky answer is so that you can sit in the driver's seat with no possibility of accidentally moving the car due to stuff like mode confusion.

        As for "glancing aside", a quick test for you. ...
        Trivial to type without looking, right?

        Most keyboards have little ridges on the F and J keys so that you can locate your fingers correctly without looking, and then touch type. Similarly my car radio has a little nub on one of the channel favourite buttons. I never need to look at either.

        But that's only half the problem with touch screens. With buttons you can locate them by feel, and they require a moderate amount of pressure to press down so you can run your fingers over them, use them for a bit of support as the car bounces around etc. Try operating your phone when it is held in a mount and you are in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle, it's not easy. You really need to cup the phone in your fingers to steady both your hand and the display and then carefully hit large touch points. Stuff like swiping is doubly hard. And the Model 3 touch screen is 15" diagonal so you all the touch points need to be near the edges to give you something to grip.

        The same design constraints are evident in things like Android Auto.

        Put all frequent interactions on the steering wheel. Change track, change station, change volume, mute, pause, change cruise control speed, change follow distance, voice commands, etc.

        That's a pretty complex set of steering wheel controls. And what about climate control? Tesla doesn't even have an auto-demist function.

        • Oh man, high-beams is not a manual option? How the hell is that a thing? It sounds like they have auto-highbeam options that are not close to perfect either. Yeah, I very much need my manual controls for things like that.

          Some discussion here on a Tesla forum:
          https://forums.tesla.com/forum... [tesla.com]

          Still, Tesla is doing so many things right. They are close!!!

          • Well hang on... this other discussion says you can do high/low beams with a "stalk" on the 3-series at least. This sounds pretty decent to me:

            https://forums.tesla.com/forum... [tesla.com]

            If you need to flash your lights a few times to warn oncoming cars of an emergency or hazard that you just passed by, you can do it... at least on the 3-series. It turns off the auto-beam option, but you can enable it again by pushing the stalk forward. That is unless another update has changed this feature, I gather.

        • The auto lights aren't perfect, on any car. It's not just a simple on/off with light level detection, it's the high/dipped beams.

          On the Tesla that may be true, but most cars just have a simple on/off with light level detection, usually coming from the sun load sensor. It worked great on our 2000 Astro until it decided that the lights had to always be on, but at least it didn't decide they had to always be off. (The control always worked to turn them on manually, until that was no longer necessary.)

          On the other hand, the combi switch on my '84 300SD died, and my lights ended up staying popped up and turned on until my battery died...

        • Well in Tesla's case it's because the door locks are not very secure so they had to add a PIN to start the car as a second layer of defence.

          Not the Model 3. The problem only affects cars with key fobs, so the Model S and X.

      • Re:Does it measure driver attentiveness? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Type44Q ( 1233630 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @07:42AM (#57450148)

        This is the first "pro Tesla" bit you've written that I don't disagree with, so that's definitely saying something. Your conclusions reveal that you've spent a lot more time thinking about driving that actually doing so; if you were a "driver among drivers," you'd instinctively know that headlight controls (among other things) should never be relegated to the touch screen.

      • I don't get this desire for "busywork" when driving.

        Until driving is fully automated, we need "busywork".

        We are generally pretty terrible at needing to be on standby to leap into action and prevent a crash, but not actually doing anything 99.99% of the time.

        • I partially agree with this. Not sure adjusting things is always the right kind of busywork, but yes until cars are 100% auto we need to be alert. Keeping your eyes moving on the road looking for other vehicles in every direction and looking for issues far ahead of you, etc. is something that will keep you out of wrecks. And I totally agree that if you are zoning out 99% of the time, that 1% of the time when you need to take control... it's not going to be pretty.

      • While I love Tesla's cars in a big big way, and considered getting one semi-recently... I still am not at all a fan of a screen that houses most basic controls. Headlights? I certainly use them manually every day, because my auto-headlights only come on at night or really dim conditions... and around here for making yourself visible to others you want your lights on any time you are driving except maybe around noontime because it is so bright outside other people won't notice you anyway. Maybe Tesla has an

      • Manual control of headlights is an important communication tool. Every car I've driven built since the late 90s has had a lever on a spring to temporarily turn on the high beams.

        I assume there's a way to handle this in the model 3, but if not it's a big problem.

        • Every car I've driven built since the late 90s has had a lever on a spring to temporarily turn on the high beams.

          Just like the Model 3.

    • Having many controls that would be buttons in most cars on the touch screen is going to be a distraction for drivers. Even stuff like the headlight controls and windscreen wiper settings are on the screen, meaning you have to glance aside and hit a touch target with no tactile feedback.

      Go outside. It's been several years since people have to set those things manually.

      • Having many controls that would be buttons in most cars on the touch screen is going to be a distraction for drivers. Even stuff like the headlight controls and windscreen wiper settings are on the screen, meaning you have to glance aside and hit a touch target with no tactile feedback.

        Go outside. It's been several years since people have to set those things manually.

        There are states where you have to turn on the headlights when it is raining enough that the wipers must be in continuous motion. Does the Tesla turn the headlights on automatically in this case? I don't know. But I have driven other cars (rentals) that do not. You have to manually interact with the headlights to comply with the law. Of course, in my experience, most people do not actually comply with that law and are more likely to turn on their hazard lights instead of their headlights which, by the w

    • As far as I'm aware, no; the tests are gross crash-related and damage-inflicted.

      Then again, considering that some statistics show texting & driving now the cause of up to 25% of crashes (not sure I buy that, did car accidents increase +25% per driver mile since, say, 1995 before texting was a thing?) I don't think there's any shortage of 'potential driver distractions' in ANY driver environment.

      While I'm not a Tesla zealot, I have to admit that 'safest car ever' is a pretty nice feather in their cap.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by crow ( 16139 )

      Headlight controls are on the touch screen because you never use them. The automatic headlights are essentially perfect. They even go on for at least a minute if the wipers go on (as required by law in many states). The only time I can think of needing to manually turn on my headlights was for construction zones in Pennsylvania (weird state law), and I expect the Autopilot will pick that up eventually. The high beams ("brights") are also essentially perfect, though I manually turn them off sometimes at

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dhaen ( 892570 )

      Having many controls that would be buttons in most cars on the touch screen is going to be a distraction for drivers. Even stuff like the headlight controls and windscreen wiper settings are on the screen, meaning you have to glance aside and hit a touch target with no tactile feedback.

      What do the accident stats say? Do we have per-model data on at-fault crashes?

      I like your posts normally, but in this case it's clear that you've never driven one. Best stick matters in which you're qualified.

  • The chance that I'll get injured in a Model 3 is 0 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @05:44AM (#57449822)

    I'm poor.

  • maybe increased safety could become electric cars their biggest selling point?
    because they have no engine in front they are already safer then traditional cars, combine with the awd that you is also mostly found on them, these cars main selling point could very well be the safety.

    either way, the tesla 3 goes on my list of 'cars to buy', it has great range, it's safe and has good build quality.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      The problem with internal combustion engines is that they're large, relatively incompressible objects. And a crash wants to shove that object straight into the cabin. With an electric car - particularly one with a large frunk - the whole front end is available for crumpling; there's no large objects to get pushed back like a battering ram.

      Beyond that, EVs are inherently very rollover resistant - they're like weebles [youtube.com]. Model 3 also has a very low polar moment of inertia, because the drive units and battery

  • Survival of the Fittest (Score:3)

    by mentil ( 1748130 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @06:02AM (#57449854)

    This means that natural selection will weed out all the ICE vehicles' drivers over time, right? Electric car master race!

  • But... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @06:10AM (#57449862) Homepage
    If you have to be in a crash, that's a good car to be in. However, they're not really taking into account the tendency for anyone to drives one to mash the accelerator (which is very fun) or be distracted by the huge iPad in the middle of the dash. On the other hand, I assume it handles quite well in the snow, both because of the low center of gravity and the full ESC and Traction Control capabilities. Overall it's a great car, but there's more to the safety of a vehicle than how it handles an accident. Probability of accident is a factor too.

    • You do know that there's enough data now to have reliable accident rates for the Tesla models, right? Or maybe you don't, because you wouldn't be incorrectly speculating on their accident rates if you did. Rei posted them up above if you're not interested in googling for them.

  • I wonder this stacks up against something like the XC90, which until now, no one has ever died in. Seems to be favorable.

    I would personally love to have an electric car. I think the Tesla design is nice looking, except for the SUV which I find horrid. However, the one I test drove, (model S) I found to be lacking in overall quality.
    I am not saying it is a bad car, but it didn't seem all that well put together. There were loads of body panels which didn't line up. Uneven gaps and some plastic bits which look

  • So how are the people who have been getting creamed for years trying to short Tesla stock going to pitch this as FUD?

    I look forward to reading carefully-placed stories in the business press intended to convince us that getting hurt or killed in a car crash is actually a good thing.

    • Re:This might be a problem for short sellers (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ledow ( 319597 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @08:20AM (#57450300) Homepage

      Because almost all modern cars are pretty good in this regard?

      The 2014 Tesla Model S EuroNCAP tests (equivalent of this test, but only done on certain years, not EVERY possible year of model) actually put it below the Ford Mondeo (called a Fusion in the US) - all the scores are lower except the driver assist tech available on the Mondeo.

      But they both score 5 stars. I'm sure in the 4 years since then the newer Mondeos probably score higher still, and the Tesla as well. As does pretty much every decent car - Ford Focus, Nissan Leaf, Kia Stonic, Honda Civic, Subaru Impreza.

      It's the ones that DON'T pass with 5 stars that stand out. Pretty much they kill people and they are quickly resubmitted for testing after a redesign.

      Do you really think that, in subjective tests, the difference between 5-stars and 5-stars being a small handful of points in things like "how many safety gadgets does the software boast" really make a difference?

      I'm no Tesla fan. But I'm a massive safety fan. Safety is incredibly important to me - that's why I own a Mondeo and checked it first. But this is *one* factor - the question of "how much control do I have of the vehicle" is actually a bigger question for me. But orders of magnitude. Hence I don't have all the lane-assist junk on my car deliberately - I refused the option. Because I intend to drive it, not put software in the path of the steering wheel direction.

      As one small factor, congratulations, it's a win for Tesla on a subjective test and may / may not actually be repeated around the world with stricter safety requirements on vehicles. In terms of "being a mass market car manufacturer", that puts you firmly in the... well... kinda "damn well expected" section of the statistics.

      Congratulations. Tesla *isn't* shit at basic safety tests over a small portion of their cars, testing a small subjective portion of their ability to survive head-on/side collisions.

      Go you.

  • How is a Tesla going to get in a wreck when it's always being charged?

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