> The Institute’s results also demonstrate the exceptional strength of Model 3’s all-glass roof, which is supported by a very strong metal body structure and helps protect occupants in roll-over crashes. During testing, the car’s roof was able to successfully resist more than 20,000 pounds of force – that’s more than if we placed five Model 3s on top of the car’s roof at once. And, the roof earned a higher strength-to-weight ratio score than any other fully electric vehicle that IIHS has ever tested.
SEJeff in particular has been a member since 2012 and has 7500 karma, and somehow never saw a post that looked unreadable because of blockquote, including his own.
I don't mean this in jest, I really do hope that you find some peace.
It's not like browsing the internet on a phone is a new concept any more. Little ridiculous how nothing has been done about its frequent use.
Prepending 4 spaces is intended to be used for posting source code, where automatic line wrapping is undesirable.
It's marketing speak and isn't supported by anything in the IIHS's actual public announcement on their most recent vehicle safety ratings. Tesla has received flak in the past for misstating the results of IIHS and NHTSA testing.
The whole Mars thing + no 30k electric car after all these years have me immune.
Tesla and musk are simply not trustworthy.
And as far as I'm aware they never promised a 30k car? They promised a 35k car, which you can buy today (you just have to email them or go in person and ask for it, it's not available online)
From this year. There will be no 35k Tesla.
Anyone who got one was merely lucky.
I'm not always a huge Musk fan, but I don't understand this kind of criticism at all. Going to mars is something the human race hasn't done before, it's no surprise it is taking longer than expected.
But that's not what it says at all. No where does it say the glass won't shatter.
The Model 3 roof has two roll bars, one links the A pillars and the other links the B pillars. That's what's strong.
See pictures of a rolled over Model 3 here: https://electrek.co/2018/07/15/tesla-model-3-rollover-crash/ The glass is broken but the rigid metal frame clearly protected the occupants from harm.
Metal gives and then fails. Glass gives minimally, and depending on tempering, can fail very, very quickly.
If you are not wearing a seatbelt, you run the risk of being ejected from the vehicle, and the higher risk of being 'partially ejected' from the vehicle, which is often worse.
I personally observed only 1 vehicle where the roof caved in on rollover (I believe it was a mid 2000s mustang). If the driver had been a few inches taller, I imagine he would've been hurt pretty badly.
The only other time I saw a roof collapse in wasn't from a roll over, but striking a tree roof first at a high rate of speed.
The only rollover crash I ever observed that the driver couldn't walk away from was a rather fortunate partial ejection. The vehicle only rolled onto its side, pinning the drivers arm between the road and the door as it slid for a few dozen yards.
The durability of the laminated safety glass should not be understated. A fire department's extraction team's approach is likely to be "cut through the glass with a circular saw".
Granted, all of this is anecdotal, with a very small sample size. Either way, wear your seat belt.
When I open TFA, I can't even find the word "glass" when I search for it.
Must have been moved from the Tesla press release to the institutes website press release.
https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/videos/a5238/watch-the...
To really answer your question, I've arbitrarily picked a few common vehicles with metal roofs.
The IIHS says the Civic roof withstands 13,195lbs of force: https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/honda/civic-2-door-coup...
A Subaru Outback: 18,533lbs of roof strength: https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/subaru/outback-4-door-w...
A BMW 3 series has roughly the same roof strength as a Model 3: https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/bmw/3-series-4-door-sed...
An Audi A5 is only 16,327lbs of roof strength: https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/audi/a5-coupe-2-door-co...
You get the idea!
Having very strong pillars is pretty much a prerequisite for surviving a rollover in an EV.
That isn't as big of a difference as I'd have expected.
The Tesla Model 3 is 3552-4072 lbs, while the new Jeep Wrangler (JL) is 3955-4455 lbs.
I could compare it to a miata that is ~2300lbs. But that's not really relevant then, is it? A Jeep Wrangler is basically a truck - so I don't think that's a good comparison.
Compared to other "compact executive cars" (as its class states) it's close to the competition.
The vibe I've got from talking to people is that they think the Model 3 (or Teslas in general) are significantly heavy relative to normal consumer vehicles. It's pretty surprising to them that even a 2 door Jeep Wrangler is actually heavier.
Same with my 1-series. It's obscenely heavy for how small it is.
A more spacious Alto that uses some aluminium and magnesium is around 650kg.
Talking about "not-so-heavy" cars...
That's a Pakistan-only car with no safety features [0]. (From the Wikipedia description, "a car with everything manually operated, and with no safety features. The car lacks airbags, ABS, rear window defogger, side air conditioner vents, seat belt reminder and even rear seat belts.") So yes, it's light. You'll also immediately die in a collision, but you get what you pay for I suppose. (The Alto is sold more broadly, but it's still obsolete)
Not exactly comparing like to like.
Just about every family sedan on the market does >5x body weight.
Sure how many Gs one typically pulls during a car crash. 5 doesn't strike me as a lot, but of course this is specifically about force applied to the roof. I guess you have to not just roll but actually fall on top of it somehow. At any rate, some actual data would be great instead of being amazed at this marketing statement.
Yes, the roof can hold 5 teslas stack one on top of the other, but this doesn't tell you much.
More practical knowledge would be at what speed the car will fall on the roof before the roof collapses? 50km/h 70km/h 100km/h?
I am not sure tests of such an event would be still so favorable.
Or to put it differently - that's an impressive achievement of a situation that will never happen to a Tesla driver. What about performance in crash situation that might actually happen?
There have been some pretty insane examples of this, such as this one: https://www.autoblog.com/2016/05/06/tesla-model-s-crash-germ...