The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y won the 2022 Top Safety Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
The IIHS tested a mid-range 2019 Tesla Model 3 and a Long Range 2021 Tesla Model Y for its 2022 Top Safety Pick+ award. The ratings Tesla received apply to the 2017-2022 Model 3 and 2020-2022 Model Y.
Breaking down the IIHS test, the Model 3 and the Model Y received “Good” ratings for crashworthiness, as seen below.
Both the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y received high marks in other parts of the IIHS tests as well. However, in the Crash Avoidance & Mitigation category, the Model 3 and Model Y received slightly different ratings. The Model 3 scored “Good” or “Superior” in all categories.
On the other hand, the Model Y was given a “Good” or “Acceptable” rating for headlights, with the IIHS noting that the score depended on the trim/option of the all-electric sedan. The safety agency reported that improved headlight offerings boosted more vehicles to win the top-tier Top Safety Pick+ award in 2022.
A recently published international Tesla patent suggests that Tesla’s vehicles will likely continue to achieve such high scores in evaluations such as the IIHS’ crashworthiness tests. The patent reveals how front and back megacastings act as an integrated energy absorbing system. Tesla China also provided an in-depth look into Giga Shanghai’s vehicles and how Tesla builds its cars to absorb impact.
Besides Tesla, 65 other vehicle models were recognized by the IIHS as 2022’s Top Safety Pick+ winners, and 36 models earned the lower-tier Top Safety Pick award. In total, the IIHS recognized 101 winners. In a press release, IIHS President David Harkey stated that while it is great to see numerous vehicles qualify for the Top Safety Pick+ award, it is time for the IIHS to roll out more stringent tests.
“We’re excited to see more vehicles on this list in 2022. Our awards make it easy for car buyers to find models that will protect them in a crash and increase the odds they’ll never be in one. By shooting for TOP SAFETY PICK+, automakers are showing that they’re committed to the same goal… Manufacturers deserve congratulations for the steady improvements they’ve made since we last updated our award requirements, but with U.S. traffic fatalities expected to exceed 40,000 people in 2021, it’s no time for anybody to rest on their laurels. A key reason vehicles have continued to get safer over the more than 25 years since the Institute began our ratings program is that we have never shied away from raising the bar. The high number of TOP SAFETY PICK+ winners shows that it’s time to push for additional changes,” Harkey said.
A recent IIHS study found that automatic emergency braking systems made no difference in pedestrian crashes that occurred at night. As a result, the safety agency decided to add a nighttime pedestrian crash prevention test held in complete darkness. Vehicles must earn an “Advanced” or “Superior” rating in the new nighttime test to win the Top Safety Pick+ award in 2023.
The new nighttime pedestrian crash prevention test will be an interesting evaluation for Tesla’s camera-based safety suite. During research tests on the upcoming nighttime pedestrian AEB evaluation, most of the test vehicles’ capabilities declined in the assessment conducted in complete darkness, except for one. The radar-only Volkswagen Taos maintained its performance rating in the nighttime pedestrian AEB evaluation test runs. However, the Taos was the worst performer during AEB daytime tests compared to the other vehicles in the nighttime AEB evaluation.
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Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor is proving to be a difficult task, according to some riders who made the journey to Austin to attempt to ride in one of its vehicles that has zero supervision.
Last week, Tesla officially removed Safety Monitors from some — not all — of its Robotaxi vehicles in Austin, Texas, answering skeptics who said the vehicles still needed supervision to operate safely and efficiently.
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Tesla aimed to remove Safety Monitors before the end of 2025, and it did, but only to company employees. It made the move last week to open the rides to the public, just a couple of weeks late to its original goal, but the accomplishment was impressive, nonetheless.
However, the small number of Robotaxis that are operating without Safety Monitors has proven difficult to hail for a ride. David Moss, who has gained notoriety recently as the person who has traveled over 10,000 miles in his Tesla on Full Self-Driving v14 without any interventions, made it to Austin last week.
He has tried to get a ride in a Safety Monitor-less Robotaxi for the better part of four days, and after 38 attempts, he still has yet to grab one:
Wow just wow!
It’s 8:30PM, 29° out ice storm hailing & Tesla Robotaxi service has turned back on!
Waymo is offline & vast majority of humans are home in the storm
Ride 38 was still supervised but by far most impressive yet pic.twitter.com/1aUnJkcYm8
— David Moss (@DavidMoss) January 25, 2026
Tesla said last week that it was rolling out a controlled test of the Safety Monitor-less Robotaxis. Ashok Elluswamy, who heads the AI program at Tesla, confirmed that the company was “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader Robotaxi fleet with Safety Monitors,” and that “the ratio will increase over time.”
This is a good strategy that prioritizes safety and keeps the company’s controlled rollout at the forefront of the Robotaxi rollout.
However, it will be interesting to see how quickly the company can scale these completely monitor-less rides. It has proven to be extremely difficult to get one, but that is understandable considering only a handful of the cars in the entire Austin fleet are operating with no supervision within the vehicle.
Tesla has given its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent, as a new feature seems to show that the company is preparing for frequent border crossings.
Tesla owner and influencer BLKMDL3, also known as Zack, recently took his Tesla to the border of California and Mexico at Tijuana, and at the international crossing, Full Self-Driving showed an interesting message: “Upcoming country border — FSD (Supervised) will become unavailable.”
FSD now shows a new message when approaching an international border crossing.
Stayed engaged the whole way as we crossed the border and worked great in Mexico! pic.twitter.com/bDzyLnyq0g
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) January 26, 2026
Due to regulatory approvals, once a Tesla operating on Full Self-Driving enters a new country, it is required to comply with the laws and regulations that are applicable to that territory. Even if legal, it seems Tesla will shut off FSD temporarily, confirming it is in a location where operation is approved.
This is something that will be extremely important in Europe, as crossing borders there is like crossing states in the U.S.; it’s pretty frequent compared to life in America, Canada, and Mexico.
Tesla has been working to get FSD approved in Europe for several years, and it has been getting close to being able to offer it to owners on the continent. However, it is still working through a lot of the red tape that is necessary for European regulators to approve use of the system on their continent.
This feature seems to be one that would be extremely useful in Europe, considering the fact that crossing borders into other countries is much more frequent than here in the U.S., and would cater to an area where approvals would differ.
Tesla has been testing FSD in Spain, France, England, and other European countries, and plans to continue expanding this effort. European owners have been fighting for a very long time to utilize the functionality, but the red tape has been the biggest bottleneck in the process.
Tesla Europe builds momentum with expanding FSD demos and regional launches
Tesla operates Full Self-Driving in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship V3 gets launch date update from Elon Musk
The first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.
Elon Musk has announced that SpaceX’s next Starship launch, Flight 12, is expected in about six weeks. This suggests that the first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.
In a post on X, Elon Musk stated that the next Starship launch is in six weeks. He accompanied his announcement with a photo that seemed to have been taken when Starship’s upper stage was just about to separate from the Super Heavy Booster. Musk did not state whether SpaceX will attempt to catch the Super Heavy Booster during the upcoming flight.
The upcoming flight will mark the debut of Starship V3. The upgraded design includes the new Raptor V3 engine, which is expected to have nearly twice the thrust of the original Raptor 1, at a fraction of the cost and with significantly reduced weight. The Starship V3 platform is also expected to be optimized for manufacturability.
The Starship V3 Flight 12 launch timeline comes as SpaceX pursues an aggressive development cadence for the fully reusable launch system. Previous iterations of Starship have racked up a mixed but notable string of test flights, including multiple integrated flight tests in 2025.
Interestingly enough, SpaceX has teased an aggressive timeframe for Starship V3’s first flight. Way back in late November, SpaceX noted on X that it will be aiming to launch Starship V3’s maiden flight in the first quarter of 2026. This was despite setbacks like a structural anomaly on the first V3 booster during ground testing.
“Starship’s twelfth flight test remains targeted for the first quarter of 2026,” the company wrote in its post on X.
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor proves to be difficult
Tesla gives its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent
