New IIHS Video - Comparing the Cybertruck vs. F-150 Lightning in safety rating crash test

[stumby]

IIHS crash test engineer Raul Arbelaez breaks down the performances of the 2025 Tesla Cybertruck and Ford F-150 Lightning in our latest safety tests.

The Cybertruck outperformed the F-150 Lightning in the updated moderate overlap front crash test, Rear passenger injury measures (head/neck and thigh), Driver injury measures (leg/foot), Rear passenger restraints and dummy kinematics, and Seat belts & child restraints (LATCH ease of use).

IIHS on the F-150 Lightning's updated moderate overlap front crash test: "It received a poor rating. The biggest concerns in the downgrade were that rear seated occupant. What we saw was one, the side curtain airbag got hung up on the b-pillar. We had some high neck tension on that rear dummy, some elevated chest injury measures, and some submarining of the seatbelt, which can cause soft tissue injury in the abdominal region. All of those added up to a Poor rating, which is certainly not something you want to see in a modern vehicle. The Cybertruck was a different story. It performed really well. Good enough to earn a Good rating in this very challenging test."

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[devdrone6]

Let me create an unbiased media Headline: “Poor ratings in Tesla Cybertruck crash tests vs. Ford F150”

Three paragraphs in, it would tell you Ford had the poor rating.

 

[96Kopper02]

Doubt the media will even report the story.

 

[BrockN]

The poor headlight rating given to the Cybertruck is unfortunately quite fair. I sure wish there was a fix for that. Either a better replacement headlight, or an aftermarket headlight (with high and low beam) that could go on the bumper or a bullbar.

I drove our Y on a dark highway a few weeks back. The active LED headlight system is shockingly good. I was confused at first, because the headlights refused to drop from high beam... but I soon realized the active function was doing its job and very well too. I had nobody flash their lights at me in an hour and a half on the undivided highway. Even following a semi, the silver back doors were black... completely unilluminated.

The fact that I now avoid driving the CT on dark highways is a huge disappointment... because the headlight performance is worse than bad IMHO.

 

[Effonefiddy Lightning]

I'm not saying this to rag on the CT but clearly the top of the B-pillar moved as well as the drivers window opening. Also, look at the bottom of the drivers door where it meets the rear passenger door. You can see it bow downward with the black kick panel.

 

[REM]

I'm not saying this to rag on the CT but clearly the top of the B-pillar moved as well as the drivers window opening. Also, look at the bottom of the drivers door where it meets the rear passenger door. You can see it bow downward with the black kick panel.

This is a bad thing?

 

[CyberGus]

Doubt the media will even report the story.

Coming soon on Torque News:

“IIHS FAILS TO CRASH TEST CYBERTRUCK DURING LIVE CHILDBIRTH”

 

[CyberGus]

the headlight performance is worse than bad IMHO.

The lack of matrix headlights is a disappointment, but illumination is not a problem. You should adjust the headlight pitch to ensure the beam is level.

 

[HaulingAss]

This is a bad thing?

No, not a bad thing. Every vehicle in this test is completely totaled, no questions about that. Tesla has shown a good ability to use the entire structure to absorb crash forces without endangering the occupants.

 

[HaulingAss]

The poor headlight rating given to the Cybertruck is unfortunately quite fair. I sure wish there was a fix for that. Either a better replacement headlight, or an aftermarket headlight (with high and low beam) that could go on the bumper or a bullbar.

I drove our Y on a dark highway a few weeks back. The active LED headlight system is shockingly good. I was confused at first, because the headlights refused to drop from high beam... but I soon realized the active function was doing its job and very well too. I had nobody flash their lights at me in an hour and a half on the undivided highway. Even following a semi, the silver back doors were black... completely unilluminated.

The fact that I now avoid driving the CT on dark highways is a huge disappointment... because the headlight performance is worse than bad IMHO.

There might be something wrong with your headlights then. Because the Cybertruck scored very well in the headlight test from the driver's perspective, it was only downgraded on the glare rating, which only impacts other drivers.

I think it's the lightbar that was showing too much light not on the road, and the high reading was probably the result of the measurements being taken at a closer distance than what would most realistically reflect real world glare concerns. The "glare" from the lightbar, as seen by an oncoming car on the highway, diminishes very rapidly with distance, although I agree at very close distances it's less than ideal on a very dark night, although that extra light is very useful when I have off-roaded at slow speeds in the pitch black. The lightbar acts as a fill-in light at close distances.

 

[REM]

The lack of matrix headlights is a disappointment, but illumination is not a problem. You should adjust the headlight pitch to ensure the beam is level.

actually, no. make sure you are on a level surface and auto-calibrate using the interface if you have messed with them.

It took me a while, but I finally realized that there is a dark spot split in between the beam and it matches perfectly with the average height of a side view mirror on the highway. At first it looks like you are projecting way too high, but this is on purpose. Go check yours out at dark to see what I mean.

 

[BrockN]

The lack of matrix headlights is a disappointment, but illumination is not a problem. You should adjust the headlight pitch to ensure the beam is level.

That's the first thing I did, according to the Tesla method, using my garage door. They were properly adjusted from the factory.

It's not a huge deal in the city or even on a brighter moonlit night. But find yourself on a dark undivided single lane highway and the shortcomings are apparent. Too much spread left and right, poor fill ahead. If someone overtakes me, I can see their headlights lighting my way (low beams) as they get up even with me, rather than mine filling in front of him - if you can picture what I mean. Same sort of thing when they're ahead of me. I can see the road ahead of them better than the road ahead of me...and admire their beam pattern. High beam isn't much better. I can easily outdrive the lights in the truck, but not in my Y and not in my '15 Model S. Hell, even my '81 RX7 with halogen bulbs in Bosch lamps was better back in the day.

I'm pretty fussy about headlights because I used to be stuck to drive secondary highways fairly regularly at night. Seeing the moose slightly sooner is always good. On a scale of 1 - 10, I give them a grudging 3.

Given the choice, I'll drive the Y at night, even though it's a smaller vehicle in a crash.

And I won't even get into the complete safety fail that is leaving the DRL active when the headlights are on. That's going to kill someone someday. The IIHS needs to do some night testing in a heavy snowfall or thick fog.

 

[BrockN]

There might be something wrong with your headlights then. Because the Cybertruck scored very well in the headlight test from the driver's perspective, it was only downgraded on the glare rating, which only impacts other drivers.

I think it's the lightbar that was showing too much light not on the road, and the high reading was probably the result of the measurements being taken at a closer distance than what would most realistically reflect real world glare concerns. The "glare" from the lightbar, as seen by an oncoming car on the highway, diminishes very rapidly with distance, although I agree at very close distances it's less than ideal on a very dark night, although that extra light is very useful when I have off-roaded at slow speeds in the pitch black. The lightbar acts as a fill-in light at close distances.

If there's something wrong with my lights, it's also wrong with local CT friend's trucks, because we've discussed this. And FWIW, I've never read anything in the test reports that would support 'very well'. Empirical results/comments/real world experiences from some owners would certainly dispute 'very well'.

The actual lights are very small and I think that's where the poor beam distribution comes from. It's all well and good to say, "5 lux illumination at X meters", but unless you look at the entire beam pattern and where it's either too dim or too bright (how uniform the illumination is), you aren't really telling much about how the driving experience actually is. "Excessive glare" to me is "light energy wasted where it isn't needed or shouldn't be". That criticism doesn't surprise me as the spill into the trees on either side of the road is ridiculous, and no where near far enough ahead to be useful to detect something lurking at the edge of the forest. I don't need to see what I'm going past - I need to see what's still relevant for reaction time. More lumens might help (they're needed!), but the uniformity is still going to be the primary issue.

 

[CyberGus]

actually, no. make sure you are on a level surface and auto-calibrate using the interface if you have messed with them.

I followed the documented procedure.

https://service.tesla.com/docs/Cybe...otherwise explicitly stated in the procedure,

 

[Effonefiddy Lightning]

This is a bad thing?

I'm not saying it is or isn't, I just think it's interesting that the two guys didn't catch that.

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