I was thinking about what a module from Iain Bank's Culture series would rate for injury percentages, and thinking that it would be rad for a team to have that sort of goal, like every few years aiming at cutting 50% of the remaining risk out.

I had a side impact in my Model S recently. When he showed the slide with the side-impact versus other cars it made me realize that I was lucky to be driving my Model S, since my car looked like the Tesla in the picture, and it likely could have looked like the other picture.

I'm curious what are the insurance rates on the Tesla cars? And how much does it cost to repair the damage? Do you have to go to Tesla for the repairs or are the qualified thrid party car body shops?

I think it's about $600 more a year than my Mini's insurance. It happened Friday, so I don't know how much it's going to cost to repair it, or if they're going to total it. The insurance guy sent it to "the only place around here that does Teslas", which happened to be the place Tesla recommended.

(EDIT: It appears that the crash test rating was also mentioned. I really should watch the presentation before commenting next time; sorry folks.)

I haven't heard the actual presentation yet so perhaps I'm missing some context but:

How exactly is stating a percentage any better than a crash test rating? At least the rating gives you something to compare with (other vehicles) and the tests themselves are well-documented and reasonably well-designed. I would have no idea what to do with a percentage, so it seems like he has replaced a buzzword (crash test ratings) that means something with a buzzword (possibility of injury during high speed collision) that doesn't provide a point of reference.

You don't see how one looks better than the other?

"Stay with us at our 5-star hotel!"

"Stay with us, there's a 6% chance you will get hurt if there's an accident!"

Yes, at one point he literally used the word 'death'. Don't remind people that your product might one day kill them!

Then he had a slide that showed how you would die early by living in a big city. The first ~10 minutes was a real downer.

After they spent all of that time on all the things that could kill you, they didn't once show the drivers seating area which seemed like a real omission.

(And, yes. I like Elon. I like Tesla. I own a teeny tiny amount of TSLA stock. I'd be sorely tempted to get a Model S if I had somewhere to charge it. )

People die in crashes, they don't like to breathe smog, they prioritize their safety. All cars "kill", that is an established fact, but we also need to transport ourselves whether we like it or not. Here is a car that is, compared to other cars, safer in those areas by a large margin. Wanna buy it?

This gives you a good description: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-model-s-achieves-best-...

With graphs!

He's claiming they did better than 5 stars, similar to what Tesla claimed about Model S. Tomorrow, you can bet that the feds will be complaining.

Can you source that actual claim about Model S?

Tesla press release:

http://wayback.archive.org/web/20130820005458/http://www.tes...

(Edit: I had to link to the wayback machine because Tesla subsequently removed the press release. Alternately, there's also the blog posting that you yourself pointed to elsewhere in this thread, with the same language: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-model-s-achieves-best-...)

The feds pushed back that 5 stars is the max, and there's no such thing as doing better than 5 stars.

And where is the claim, I can't seem to find it in your link.

Edit: My comment is still valid, there was simply no such claim made.

This is the claim that the feds disagreed with:

"NHTSA does not publish a star rating above 5, however safety levels better than 5 stars are captured in the overall Vehicle Safety Score (VSS) provided to manufacturers, where the Model S achieved a new combined record of 5.4 stars."

Elsewhere in this thread, you point to a different Tesla blog post with the exact same language!

And the only problem is because they technically used 5.4 and stars together. If they called 5.4 with some other magical unit they invented, or simply called it theoretical/hypothetical rating, there would be no problem.

They also make it pretty clear: NHTSA does not publish a star rating above 5

You would have to be either a lawyer or pretty dense to see that as deceptive.

The first paragraph ends with "...where the Model S achieved a new combined record of 5.4 stars."

He mentions both, goes above and beyond. The 6% approaches a theoretical 6-star rating.

In which case I apologize. I really should have watched the presentation first.

Are those safety tests accounting for electric cars that carry large Lithium batteries? Those can be very dangerous...