The Tesla Cybertruck’s polarising design had raised questions about how it would perform in a crash. Now, some – but not all – of those questions have been answered.
While Tesla included a video of the Cybertruck crashing into a wall when the long-awaited model launched in November 2023, it hasn’t been tested by an independent body – until now.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) this week awarded the Cybertruck a five-star safety rating based on tests it undertook last year, however the result doesn’t directly translate to what we see in Australia.
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The NHTSA is a US Government agency which acts as the peak body for road safety, but – like the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) – its safety ratings don’t prevent or allow a vehicle to be sold, rather inform customers ahead of their purchase.
It doesn’t assess pedestrian safety, unlike ANCAP, though the NHTSA did subject the Cybertruck to a battery of physical crash tests.
In the case of the Cybertruck, it was awarded five stars in the NHTSA’s full-width frontal impact crash test, with five stars for the driver but only four for the front-row passenger.
The NHTSA conducts this test at 56km/h, whereas ANCAP does so at 50km/h.
According to the NHTSA, the Cybertruck also achieved five-star ratings across its side and pole impact tests, applicable to front and rear seat occupants.
In the side barrier test a 1368kg barrier hits the driver’s side of the vehicle at 62km/h while angled at 27 degrees. ANCAP performs this test with a 1400kg barrier at 60km/h, however the vehicle is hit side-on directly, not at an angle.
An oblique pole test conducted by the NHTSA sees the vehicle collide at 32km/h into a fixed, rigid pole aligned to the driver’s seating position at an angle of 75 degrees. Unlike the NHTSA, ANCAP repeats these side impact tests to determine the ‘far-side impact’ of these collisions.
The NHTSA conducts rollover testing, a predictive method which it says “measures the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle, loss-of-control scenario”. The Cybertruck received a four-star rating for rollover resistance, with a rollover risk of 12.4 per cent.
The US safety body doesn’t, however, have any tests that mirror those of ANCAP’s Vulnerable Road User Protection assessment.
These tests are conducted at 40km/h, with the aim of assessing how well-protected pedestrians are in the event of an impact.
Likewise, ANCAP not only evaluates the performance of autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems in relation to cars, cyclists and pedestrians, but lane support systems (such as lane-departure warning and lane-keep assist), and other systems such as driver fatigue monitoring and speed assistance.
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ANCAP’s AEB tests -
These tests are conducted at speeds ranging from 10km/h to 50km/h.
Though NHTSA doesn’t undertake these tests, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) tests AEB performance in relation to other cars and pedestrians only at between 20km/h and 40km/h.
The IIHS conducts other safety tests against different criteria to NHTSA, albeit still without any pedestrian safety testing. Its results are also publicly available even though the data is used to inform insurance premiums.
The body has yet to assess the Cybertruck.
Unfortunately it’s likely we’ll never see the Cybertruck – as it’s currently designed at least – tested by ANCAP or its sister organisation Euro ANCAP, as the electric pickup isn’t sold here or in Europe.
