The Tesla Cybertruck has been available for just over a week and people are already ready to declare it a safety nightmare.
“Unguided missile” and “death machine” These are some of the loaded phrases that are said out there. Security experts are “raising concerns” about the truck's crumple zones (or lack thereof). TikTok and other social platforms abound with videos highlighting poor sight lines and lack of visibility for drivers and passengers.
But if the Cybertruck is particularly deadly to pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users, it's because it will be a large truck in America in the year 2023. We have plenty of data showing that America's favorite type of vehicle is also one of the most deadly. We have very little data on the Cybertruck in particular, because it has only been available for a couple of weeks and in extremely limited quantities.
But if the Cybertruck is particularly deadly to pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users, it's because it is a large truck in the United States in the year 2023.
We need more data (and evidence) before we know more about the specific dangers posed by this sharply angled stainless steel contraption. And at this time, neither the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) nor the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), two independent agencies that test new vehicles, have plans to conduct safety tests on accidents with the Cybertruck.
All trucks are dangerous.
But based on the specs we know, we can certainly draw some conclusions about the Cybertruck. Like other trucks in its segment, the Cybertruck is heavy, tall, very fast, and likely extremely deadly to anyone unlucky enough to cross its path.
Last month, the IIHS released a study that confirms much of what we already know: Trucks and SUVs with high, flat fronts and high hoods are deadlier to pedestrians than more compact vehicles.
“High front ends increase the risk,” says Raúl Arbelaez, vice president of the IIHS Vehicle Research Center. “For mid-height vehicles, blocky or blunt front ends also increase the risk. A higher impact point increases the risk for cyclists.”
These features are not exclusive to the Cybertruck. Trucks from Ford, GM, Toyota, Ram and others are also extremely deadly to pedestrians. Electric trucks, in particular, are deadlier due to the increased weight due to the battery. And yet, for some reason, you don't see as many stories in the media that mention, say, the F-150 Lightning or the Rivian R1T or the Chevy Silverado EV.
“The weight of vehicles in our fleet has continued to increase over the past 20 years,” says Arbelaez. “Electrification is taking weight gain to another level that will lead to dangerous results.”
We need more data
Despite these conclusions, Arbeláez and other safety experts are taking a wait-and-see attitude with the Cybertruck. “We haven't had a chance to measure the front end of the Cybertruck, so we don't know how it will compare to other trucks or SUVs,” he says.
A Consumer Reports spokesperson says the same: “We're going to wait for more data,” citing the need for independent testing data from NHTSA and IIHS.
Tesla conducted its own crash tests with the Cybertruck internally, videos of which were shown during the delivery event last month. But NHTSA has yet to conduct its own. In the United States, car companies “self-certify” that their vehicles meet federal safety standards that require everything from side mirrors to air bags to automatic emergency braking. There is no “pre-approval” before an automaker is allowed to sell its cars to the public.
“We're going to wait for more data.”
This allows Tesla to sell cars with driver assistance systems that safety experts say put drivers and pedestrians at risk. And it allows you to sell a truck made of stainless steel and without rounded edges. The Cybertruck “meets performance criteria” for standards such as lane departure warnings and dynamic braking support. according to the NHTSA website. But there is no five-star safety rating and the Cybertruck was not mentioned on the agency's list of vehicles it will crash test by 2024.
Deformation zones or lack thereof
So far, the aforementioned crash test videos presented by Tesla during its delivery event have been the focus of the most questions, with many focusing on the truck's crumple zones, or lack thereof.
The crumple zone is the area of a vehicle that is designed to crush or crumple upon impact. Often located at the front of a vehicle, the crumple zone will absorb some of the impact of a crash, protecting the driver and other occupants.
By absorbing and dissipating energy, crumple zones help prevent or reduce injuries to vehicle occupants during a collision. A more rigid vehicle, perhaps one made of stainless steel, could complicate this process.
But again, all we have is a couple of videos. What we need is data, independently verified, before we can definitively say that this truck will cause mass death and destruction. Security experts cited by Reuters Recognize that there may be some shock absorption mechanism that compensates for the apparent lack of crumple zones. We just don't know yet.
Elon Musk is “Very confident” that the Cybertruck will be safer than other trucks on the road for occupants and pedestrians. Tesla has historically achieved high safety ratings thanks to its underlying architecture, which makes the car more rigid and better protects passengers. Placing the battery in the vehicle floor also gives the Model Y and other Tesla vehicles a lower center of gravity, which improves road stability and decreases the chances of rollover. The four Tesla vehicles, the Model S, X, 3 and Y, have earned five-star ratings from EuroNCAP.
But the Cybertruck is a truck, and trucks are historically a pedestrian safety nightmare. The same goes for all the Ford, GMC, Hummer and Ram trucks on the road today. The underlying issues of weight, height and dimensions are what have contributed to the current pedestrian safety crisis, in which more people are dying on the road than at any other time in the last 40 years.
The Cybertruck is unlikely to be sold in Europe, where pedestrian safety standards are much higher than those in the United States. One of Tesla's main designers said it in an interview with Top Gear Netherlandsblaming the inflexible stainless steel exterior.
There is no such rule here in the United States. Our vehicle safety evaluation system It only takes into account the people inside the car, not those outside. The production and sale of gigantic, aggressive machines that are experts at killing us is depressingly legal and will probably remain so until something changes.
