The Tesla Model 3 once again carries the Top Safety Pick Plus award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Top Pick designation from Consumer Reports.
The car had initially earned both awards for the 2021 model year. But in May, Tesla changed how several key safety systems operate. In both its Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV, the electric automaker removed radar sensors that helped detect surrounding cars – a crucial function for automatic emergency braking and lane-departure warning. The company replaced the radar sensors with cameras and neural net processing.
CR and the IIHS removed their safety awards from both cars because they hadn’t tested Tesla models with the new sensors. The institute planned to retest. That has apparently happened, at least for the Model 3. The IIHS has restored its top safety award for Tesla’s least expensive model.
CR has followed suit.“Given the IIHS’ recent evaluations of Tesla’s new camera-based system on its Model 3 and consistent with CR’s integration of IIHS ratings into our recommendations, CR is restoring the car’s Top Pick status,” says Jake Fisher, senior director of CR’s Auto Test Center.
The Model Y has yet to be retested. But, since the same change was made to both vehicles, it seems likely that both will test equally well. We’ll update this story when Model Y test results appear.
