Tesla's Three-Pronged Approach to Vehicle Safety

While Tesla's recognizable styling, industry-leading tech, and convenience features get the majority of buyers' and journalists' attention, the automaker claims to design its cars first and foremost for the safety of everyone on the road. According to Tesla, this includes designing for passive safety, active safety in the form of driver-assist systems, and continuous data-driven improvements.

Safety Is Baked Into the Structure

Passive safety includes any feature or element that's inherent to a vehicle's physical design. Think crumple zones, safety glass, and reinforced passenger cells. And even a side latch — something theoretically designed with the intent of improving side collision safety.

With Tesla EVs, the battery pack is integral to both the powertrain and the body structure. The pack's location below the floor, close to the ground, helps give these vehicles a low center of gravity. That makes the vehicle very stable in many types of maneuvers — including those to avoid an accident — and less likely to roll over compared with a vehicle of similar weight with a higher center of gravity.

Tesla's batteries themselves are safeguarded in case of a collision. The brand's patented side-sill armor absorbs energy from an impact and disperses it instead of transmitting the force into the cabin or the battery.

And while automakers may be tempted to design a vehicle specifically to pass crash tests — such as those performed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and the European New Car Assessment Programme — Tesla builds its cars to excel more than just those narrow circumstances.

This was demonstrated when the IIHS updated its moderate overlap test for 2024 and many vehicles received revised lower grades. The Tesla Model Y, on the other hand, took home top marks in the new exam without any changes to its body structure or safety restraints and earned the organization's Top Safety Pick+ award.

Tesla's other vehicles have not undergone the updated testing yet. Further evidence of overachieving Tesla engineers was found during NHTSA's first roof-crush test of the Model S — the car's body was so strong that it broke the machine.

Tesla Over-the-Air Improvements

The worldwide Tesla fleet is vast, containing more than a million vehicles. When any of those vehicles is involved in a crash, the automaker is able to learn from it. Using the wireless communications built into every Tesla vehicle, engineers can collect and analyze information such as when the airbags deployed, whether the seat belts were buckled, and how the steering wheel was positioned at the time of impact. They can then use this data to improve existing systems and design new ones so future crashes can be mitigated or avoided.

The findings from this real-world data also inform what kinds of crash testing and crash simulation engineers inflict on the real and digital cars. Again, this goes beyond designing vehicles to pass specific tests and takes into account what is actually happening on the road.

If the solution to a problem is software based, Tesla owners needn't make time to take their cars to a dealership for service. The company can simply send out an improvement to its fleet via an over-the-air update — a vehicle technology that Tesla pioneered.

Active Safety Gives Drivers a Hand and Extra Sets of Eyes

As the old saying goes, the best accident is no accident at all. That's where active safety systems come in. Every Tesla comes equipped with the Autopilot suite of driver aids, which can lessen the effects of a collision or prevent it from occurring.

Autopilot uses cameras around the vehicle to observe the road, other vehicles, and pedestrians. Its automatic emergency braking function can detect an impending collision and apply the vehicle's brakes if the driver doesn't respond in time. The vehicle will also alert the driver with visual and audible warnings of a potential collision.

For instance, if a Tesla driver goes to change lanes just as another vehicle tries to take the same spot, the blind-spot collision-warning system will provide a heads up, telling the driver it's not safe to move over. And lane-departure avoidance can prevent the vehicle from straying out of its current lane by steering it away from the edge of the lane. If a collision does occur, the dashcam function can record footage of the incident to a USB drive (if installed), should you need it for insurance or law enforcement purposes.

What's more, those same cameras are watching when no one is in the vehicle. Sentry mode, Tesla's advanced security system, can detect suspicious activity around the vehicle and start recording video. The vehicle owner will then get an alert through the Tesla app that something is happening around their car. The app can also be used to monitor the car's surroundings remotely using Live Camera. This can provide that extra peace of mind when you're in an unfamiliar area.

Tesla is in a partnership with Capital One