Here's how the Tesla that fell off a 250-foot cliff would fare in other crashes
- A Tesla was driven off a 250-foot cliff in California this month, with all four passengers surviving.
- The company's Model Y electric SUV received top safety marks from both private and government testers.
When a Tesla SUV traveling at more than 75 mph plunged off a 250-foot cliff this month, something unexpected happened: all four passengers survived.
The crash is currently under investigation, with police suspecting that it was intentional. While those inside were injured, one expert told Insider that the only reason it was not fatal was likely due to Tesla's design — in part, its even weight distribution, something it shares with other electric cars that place their batteries in the center of the vehicle.
Cars with internal-combustion engines are usually front-heavy, making them more likely to land nose-first in a fall.
There are some safety concerns with Teslas, in particular, their claimed "self-driving" capabilities, which are being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over reports of sudden stops at highway speeds and collisions with stopped vehicles on the side of the road.
But NHTSA has also awarded an overall five-star safety rating to Tesla's Model Y, the vehicle involved in this month's cliff-diving incident outside San Francisco. That rating is in part due to how the model, which has a starting list price of just under $66,000, fared when slammed into a wall at 35 mph.
The Tesla also received high marks from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which conducts its own series of crash tests — and posts the videos to YouTube.
IIHS tests for three types of frontal collisions, which it describes as "overlap" tests. As opposed to simply slamming the vehicle into a barrier, these tests show how a car will perform when it clips another object.
Here's how the Model Y fares in what IIHS describes as a driver-side "small overlap" crash at 40 mph:
In its notes on the test, IIHS said the Tesla performed "good" in all areas. "The frontal and side curtain airbags worked well together to keep the head from coming close to any stiff structure or outside objects that could cause injury," it said. And the "driver's space was maintained well, and risk of injuries to the dummy's legs and feet was low."
The vehicle performed similarly well when the "small overlap" was on the passenger side.
And here's what happens when that "small" overlap becomes a "moderate" one at the same speed:
This time, too, IIHS gave the Tesla top scores, noting that the crash-test dummy's position after the collision showed that "the driver's survival space was maintained very well," with a "low" risk of leg and foot injuries.
IIHS also tested to see what happens when a Model Y is struck from the side at 31 mph:
IIHS noted that, after the collision, the driver crash-test dummy's head "was protected from being hit by hard structures" thanks to the Tesla's side airbags.
The only area where IIHS did not award the Tesla Model Y its top "good" rate was its child-seat latches, which it said were merely "acceptable." According to the nonprofit institute, the anchors for a child seat are located too deep, which could make it more difficult to attach one properly.