Tesla Inc. announced that its Model Y has extended its record of five-star ratings in Europe. The electric crossover received the highest score in safety tests conducted by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), earning the highest overall score of any vehicle tested under the agency’s more stringent testing protocol.
The test measures four areas: the vehicle’s ability to protect adults; its ability to protect children; the protection it provides to vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians; and its safety assistance features. Euro NCAP reported that Tesla’s Model Y, built at its Berlin plant, scored 97 points for adult occupant protection and a “near perfect” 98 points for safety assistance, as well as perfect scores for its lane support and new camera-based cockpit driver monitoring system.
The agency also praised Tesla’s camera-only vision system, which it said “performs very well” in preventing collisions with other cars, bicyclists and pedestrians. Tesla has historically achieved high safety ratings thanks to its basic architecture, which makes the car more rigid and better protects passengers. The placement of the battery on the vehicle floor also gives the Model Y and other Tesla vehicles a lower center of gravity, which improves road stability and reduces the chance of rollovers. Tesla’s other three vehicles, the Model S, Model X and Model 3, have also received five-star ratings from Euro NCAP.
In the U.S., the situation is similar. All four of Tesla’s vehicles have earned a five-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, most recently in the 2021 Model Y. NHTSA rates vehicles based on a variety of crash test metrics, including frontal crashes (including subcategories for driver and passenger seats), side crashes (including crashes into barriers and poles) and rollover conditions, but not for pedestrian and cyclist safety,. It also does not include driver assistance technologies.
Notably, neither Euro NCAP nor NHTSA included Tesla’s two driver assistance systems, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), in their testing protocols. Euro NCAP did consider Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) and Lane Keeping Assist to prevent drivers from inadvertently drifting into another lane.
NHTSA is currently investigating nearly 30 incidents involving automated driving in the United States. Earlier this year, the agency escalated its investigation into a dozen incidents involving stationary emergency vehicles, bringing Tesla one step closer to a possible recall. Tesla has yet to receive regulatory approval for FSD from the European Union, which requires much higher standards to be passed than in the United States.
