Connect with us

News

Tesla Model 3 captures IIHS Top Safety Pick+ Award for third straight year

Tesla Model 3 Track Mode V2 (Source: Tesla Raj | YouTube)

Published

on

The Tesla Model 3 once again won the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) Top Safety Pick+ award, marking the third consecutive year the all-electric sedan appeared on the list.

The IIHS released its list of the Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ award winners on Wednesday, February 24. In total, 90 vehicles were listed in the two subcategories, expanding the list from just 64 cars last year.

Credit: Reddit | u/Coolioj

“With these awards, we want to make it easy for consumers to find vehicles that provide good protection in crashes, sufficient lighting, and effective front crash protection,” IIHS President David Harkey said. “Manufacturers have stepped up to meet the challenge, and the list of great options has grown to an impressive size this year.”

While plenty of new vehicles made it onto the list, several cars returned to the list after being mentioned last year. One of them was the Tesla Model 3, marking its third consecutive appearance on the IIHS list for safe cars. The Model 3’s first appearance was in 2019, the year after its first complete fiscal production push in 2018. Deliveries of the Model 3 began in 2017, but it was in the second half of the year.

The 2021 Model 3 holds top marks in each of the IIHS Crashworthiness categories, along with all but one possible point in Crash Avoidance and Mitigation. It is one of the most complete vehicles ever to be released and graded by the IIHS, especially as crash test ratings for the car received top marks in all but one category: Lower Leg/Foot for the Driver-Side overlap front received an “Acceptable” rating, while every other area of the car maintained a “Good” grade, the highest possible rating.

Advertisement

ALSO READ:

Tesla Model 3 retains its esteemed IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award for 2020

The Model 3 is listed in the “Midsize Luxury Cars” segment and is joined by the Acura TLX, Lexus ES 350, Lexus IS, Volvo S60, Volvo S60 Recharge, Volvo V60, and the Volvo V60 Recharge.

Among its three-peat on the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ Award, the Model 3 has also won numerous accolades from the NHTSA, Consumer Reports, Edmunds, and other international publications, who have all mentioned the all-electric sedan’s versatility as a safe, high-performance car that has truly changed the automotive industry as a whole.

Advertisement

Check out the IIHS’ 2021 Top Safety Pick awards here.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

What is Digital Optimus? The new Tesla and xAI project explained

At its core, Digital Optimus operates through a dual-process architecture inspired by human cognition.

Published

on

Credit: Grok

Tesla and xAI announced their groundbreaking joint project, Digital Optimus, also nicknamed “Macrohard” in a humorous jab at Microsoft, earlier this week.

This software-based AI agent is designed to automate complex office workflows by observing and replicating human interactions with computers. As the first major outcome of Tesla’s $2 billion investment in xAI, it represents a powerful fusion of hardware efficiency and advanced reasoning.

Tesla announces massive investment into xAI

At its core, Digital Optimus operates through a dual-process architecture inspired by human cognition.

Advertisement

Tesla’s specialized AI acts as “System 1”—the fast, instinctive executor—processing the past five seconds of real-time computer screen video along with keyboard and mouse actions to perform immediate tasks.

Advertisement

xAI’s Grok model serves as “System 2,” the strategic “master conductor” or navigator, providing high-level reasoning, world understanding, and directional oversight, much like an advanced turn-by-turn navigation system.

When combined, the two can create a powerful AI-based assistant that can complete everything from accounting work to HR tasks.

Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI

The system runs primarily on Tesla’s low-cost AI4 inference chip, minimizing expensive Nvidia resources from xAI for competitive, real-time performance.

Advertisement

Elon Musk described it as “the only real-time smart AI system” capable, in principle, of emulating the functions of entire companies, handling everything from accounting and HR to repetitive digital operations.

Timelines point to swift deployment. Announced just days ago, Musk expects Digital Optimus to be ready for user experience within about six months, targeting rollout around September 2026.

It will integrate into all AI4-equipped Tesla vehicles, enabling parked cars to handle office work during downtime. Millions of dedicated units are also planned for deployment at Supercharger stations, tapping into roughly 7 gigawatts of available power.

Digital Optimus directly supports Tesla’s broader autonomy strategy. It leverages the same end-to-end neural networks, computer vision, and real-time decision-making tech that power Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and the physical Optimus humanoid robot.

By repurposing idle vehicle compute and extending AI4 hardware beyond driving, the project scales Tesla’s autonomy ecosystem from roads to digital workspaces.

Advertisement

As a virtual counterpart to physical Optimus, it divides labor: software agents manage screen-based tasks while humanoid robots tackle physical ones, accelerating Tesla’s vision of general-purpose AI for productivity, Robotaxi fleets, and beyond.

In essence, Digital Optimus bridges Tesla’s vehicle and robotics autonomy with enterprise-scale AI, promising massive efficiency gains. No other company currently matches its real-time capabilities on such accessible hardware.

It really could be one of the most crucial developments Tesla and xAI begin to integrate, as it could revolutionize how people work and travel.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

Tesla adds awesome new driving feature to Model Y

Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla is adding an awesome new driving feature to Model Y vehicles, effective on Juniper-updated models considered model year 2026 or newer.

Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.

Tesla writes in the release notes for the feature:

“Your Tesla now provides a smoother feel as you come to a complete stop during routine braking.”

Advertisement

Interestingly, we’re not too sure what catalyzed Tesla to try to improve braking smoothness, because it hasn’t seemed overly abrupt or rough from my perspective. Although the brake pedal in my Model Y is rarely used due to Regenerative Braking, it seems Tesla wanted to try to make the ride comfort even smoother for owners.

Advertisement

There is always room for improvement, though, and it seems that there is a way to make braking smoother for passengers while the vehicle is coming to a stop.

This is far from the first time Tesla has attempted to improve its ride comfort through Over-the-Air updates, as it has rolled out updates to improve regenerative braking performance, handling while using Full Self-Driving, improvements to Steer-by-Wire to Cybertruck, and even recent releases that have combatted Active Road Noise.

Tesla set to activate long-awaited Cybertruck feature

Tesla holds a unique ability to change the functionality of its vehicles through software updates, which have come in handy for many things, including remedying certain recalls and shipping new features to the Full Self-Driving suite.

Advertisement

Tesla seems to have the most seamless OTA processes, as many automakers have the ability to ship improvements through a simple software update.

We’re really excited to test the update, so when we get an opportunity to try out Comfort Braking when it makes it to our Model Y.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla finally brings a Robotaxi update that Android users will love

The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android.

Published

on

Credit: Grok

Tesla is finally bringing an update of its Robotaxi platform that Android users will love — mostly because it seems like they will finally be able to use the ride-hailing platform that the company has had active since last June.

Based on a decompile of software version 26.2.0 of the Robotaxi app, Tesla looks to be ready to roll out access to Android users.

According to the breakdown, performed by Tesla App Updates, the company is preparing to roll out an Android version of the app as it is developing several features for that operating system.

The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android:

“Strings like notification_channel_robotaxid_trip_name and android_native_alicorn_eta_text show exactly how Tesla plans to replicate the iOS Live Activities experience. Instead of standard push alerts, Android users are getting a persistent, dynamically updating notification channel.”

Advertisement

This is a big step forward for several reasons. From a face-value perspective, Tesla is finally ready to offer Robotaxi to Android users.

The company has routinely prioritized Apple releases because there is a higher concentration of iPhone users in its ownership base. Additionally, the development process for Apple is simply less laborious.

Tesla is working to increase Android capabilities in its vehicles

Secondly, the Robotaxi rollout has been a typical example of “slowly then all at once.”

Advertisement

Tesla initially released Robotaxi access to a handful of media members and influencers. Eventually, it was expanded to more users, so that anyone using an iOS device could download the app and hail a semi-autonomous ride in Austin or the Bay Area.

Opening up the user base to Android users may show that Tesla is preparing to allow even more users to utilize its Robotaxi platform, and although it seems to be a few months away from only offering fully autonomous rides to anyone with app access, the expansion of the user base to an entirely different user base definitely seems like its a step in the right direction.

Continue Reading