A lot of word has passed the lips of Tesla Model S critics and fanatics regarding its level of greenness, how well it performs, and whether or not it is simply a brick waiting to happen [It absolutely is NOT].
For some reason though, its safety designs haven’t been all that newsworthy, and I’m not really sure why that is. After all, there is a reason that active and passive safety systems are available in most vehicles today, including seat belts, air bags, anti-lock brakes, pre-collision systems, lane-keeping steering, blind-spot alerts, and the list goes on. For anyone who values life, crash test ratings are a matter of concern, life and death, really. Now, the Daewoo Nubira may or may not be familiar to you, but I found a crash test video of it, and it scares the heck out of me.
http://youtu.be/dMVeq6P5s9E
The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA] was refusing to test any more Daewoo vehicles because they were destroying the crash test dummies. Destroying the dummies, multimillion-dollar apparatus designed to simulate a human occupant involved in a crash, and the Daewoo were good at it. [Not even our lunches were safe in the shop refrigerator, also made by Daewoo.]
Some vehicles, such as the Tesla Model S, are not very good at all reducing crash dummies to non-functional scrap, which is good, because that means the dummies can be used for another crash test [Daewoo, perhaps?] as they were designed. In the case of the Tesla Model S, all crash test dummies survived the frontal crash, side crash, and rollover tests, with minimal bruising. Since you are worth much more than even multimillion-dollar crash test dummies, its nice to see an automaker, even one so focused on performance, not slacking in the least when it comes to safety.
