A Tesla Model 3 plugged in and charging at a Supercharger battery fast-charging station for electric vehicles in Bersteland, Germany, on March 2, 2021.
Thomas Koehler | Photothek | fake images
Consumer Reports and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety on Tuesday restored top safety endorsements for the Tesla Model 3, the company’s lowest-priced electric sedan.
Tesla said in May it was removing radar sensors from its Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossover vehicles made for customers in North America built on or after April 27. These would be based on a vision-based driver assistance system (using cameras) instead.
At that time, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration web pages that reference the Tesla 2021 Model 3 stopped displaying check marks indicating that the agency had verified the effectiveness of safety features in cars. modified.
Of particular concern was whether the Teslas’s forward collision warning, lane departure warning, impending crash braking, and radar-skipped Teslas dynamic braking support would work as well as before the modification.
Checkmarks are still missing on the government website for some of those features.
An IIHS spokesperson said in an email to CNBC: “With the new ratings, the 2021 IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK + award now applies to all 2021 Tesla Model 3 vehicles, regardless of the frontal crash prevention system that is equipped in a specific vehicle ”.
IIHS has not evaluated the Tesla Model Y, but plans to complete full ratings for that vehicle later this summer. Your report will include an evaluation of the Model Y’s crashworthiness, frontal crash prevention, and headlights.
Consumer Reports said in a statement Tuesday that independent IIHS testing “demonstrated the effectiveness” of Tesla’s camera-based automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems, and that was enough to designate the Model 3 from 2021, once again, a Consumer Reports Top Pick.
