Tesla has gone from producing niche sports cars to mass market saloons, and with SUVs
and more affordable options added to the range, it’s easy to see how the company is now
producing around half a million vehicles each year.
Scaling up production isn’t just restricted to assembling more and more vehicles, though.
Everything must be ramped up, from transport and logistics, to testing, and that’s exactly
what we’re looking at today.
The company claims that its electric cars are the “safest cars in the world” but
what evidence does Tesla, and CEO Elon Musk, have to back up that bold claim?
In this video we will look at various aspects of testing, but ultimately, they all boil
down to two core principles: safety, and reliability.
The company emphasises three important features that make its cars so safe, and they are a
combination of active safety technology, passive safety technology, and automated driver assistance
systems, all of which are put through rigorous testing to ensure ultimate performance.
Put simply, active safety refers to a set of features that step in to help prevent an
accident in the first place, such as electronic stability control and electronic brake-force
distribution.
Passive safety comes into play in the event of a collision, and includes things like safe
seats and headrests, airbags, child seat mounting points and seatbelt pretensioners.
Automated driver assistance systems are a little harder to define, because they tread
along the line that separates this category from active safety technology.
In general, these can include lane and blind spot monitoring systems, adaptive cruise control,
and in the case of Tesla, evasive steering.
All three of its mainstream cars - the Model S, Model X, and newer Model 3 - each achieved
the lowest possible probability of injury of any car when tested by the ‘US New Car
Assessment Program,’ and after crossing the pond, achieved similarly impressive five-star
ratings at the notoriously harsh ‘Euro NCAP’ testing.
These tests see multiple production cars thrown at obstacles at different angles and speeds,
filled with dummies representing men, women and children as passengers.
The Model 3 achieved one of the highest scores in the increasingly stringent European tests,
with a 96% rating for adult occupant safety, 86% for child occupant safety, 74% for vulnerable
road users (also known as pedestrians), and 94% for its safety assist systems.
For reference, a Volvo S60, a similarly sized saloon car built by a company that prides
itself on its safety, achieved the following scores, which shows just how advanced Tesla’s
safety technology can be; the ‘safety assist systems’ in particular.
(96%, 84%, 74% and 76%)
Most electric cars are inherently rigid, benefitting from large crumple zones and a low centre
of gravity, thanks to the strong battery packs that are generally located under the cabin.
Applying mathematics and physics to the design of its cars is Tesla’s first step to engineering
and testing the safest cars on the market.
But stage two is arguably more vital, and involves real-world testing.
While most manufacturers take a sample of one vehicle in every couple of thousand produced
to test, we’re told that Tesla takes a lot more, although there’s no exact figure for
this.
The team is headed by Jeff Hickethier, who has been working in the automotive industry
for decades.
When he’s not testing the cars, he’s sitting in the passenger seat instructing the next
generation of testers.
The primary facility is located adjacent to the Fremont factory in California; the track
dates back to the 1980s when the factory was originally jointly owned by General Motors
and Toyota, so it has been tweaked and perfected over the years to provide the most accurate
scenarios for the best readings and results.
Hickethier teaches his team to focus on every little thing that the average consumer wouldn’t
even notice.
This can include checking brakes and wheel alignment through feedback from the pedal
and steering wheel.
The track includes lengths of harsh bumps that are designed to rattle the cars, highlighting
loose fittings and fixtures, as well as long, fast straights for high-speed and acceleration
testing.
Some cars then make their way northbound, until they reach the emptiness of Alaska.
Somewhere not too far from Delta Junction is a dedicated testing ground, made up of
perfectly manicured snowy and icy surfaces, as well as snowy handling courses, iced hills
and a suitably large skidpad.
Tesla shares the facility with the military, which tests its tanks in the extreme weather.
It’s not just on- and off-road stability that Tesla tests here, though.
The heating, ventilation and air conditioning system (often referred to as HVAC) is fine
tuned here to help it perform more efficiently in colder climates, as well as the battery
thermal and power management.
The best off-roaders use locking or limited-slip differentials for maximum off-road grip, which
allows each wheel to deliver the right amount of power.
Tesla, on the other hand, uses an open differential which means both the wheels on any given axle
spin at the same rate.
Put simply, the front left wheel may be gripping sufficiently while the front right wheel may
be spinning wildly in a failed effort to get traction.
Rather than fit its cars with the more expensive and sophisticated solution that most people
would not even require 99% of the time, the company opted for a cheaper alternative that
it calls an e-differential, which applies the brakes to individual wheels to prevent
unnecessary spinning.
Clever, but not unique; the likes of BMW and Mercedes have been using this sort of system
for years.
The final stage of testing may not be what you expect - by this point, the cars are on
the roads, in the hands of the general public.
Every single Tesla that rolls off the production line since the early Model S is digitally
connected, full-time.
Over one billion miles in Autopilot mode alone have been logged and recorded so far, helping
to develop active technology based on real-world scenarios.
Thanks to this, unpredictable events like other drivers’ errors and unexpected fires
have led to new developments.
Now, for example, fires in the battery department get isolated to prevent them spreading into
other sections, while heat is ventilated away from the cabin.
At the moment, no other manufacturer is doing anything like this, which puts the electric
vehicle manufacturer paces ahead of competition.
Thanks to this extensive and revolutionary testing model, beating the safety scores of
any Tesla Model has become almost impossible.
Whether you believe the marketing material or not, it’s clear that Tesla is dedicated
to extensive testing, ensuring that it creates the safest possible product.
Do you know of any other manufacturers that go to such extremes to test their cars?
Let us know in the comments below.