It doesn’t look like the dollar is the only American to outperform their Indian counterparts. Following the news of Maruti Suzuki Alto 800 underperforming at the Latin American NCAP testing, news has emerged that Tesla’s new Model S has performed a similar test in the USA so well; it broke NHTSA's testing equipment.
The impact tests results for the Tesla Model S revealed that the car retained 63.5 per cent of its driver residual space, as compared to about 8 per cent by a car manufactured by a brand perceived for its safety. If that is not staggering enough, the rig designed to perform rollover tests for cars failed miserably to ever topple the Model S. Backed by its low centre of gravity, the car literally broke the equipment and NHTSA had to resort for an alternative method to overturn the car.
While it is comforting to know that the cars of tomorrow are getting safer, it is also alarming to realise that the cars of today aren’t as safe as they can be. Especially in countries like ours where even an establishment like the NHTSA is inexistent, safety has to be given a more important priority. While it might be impractical to ask for a car that will never topple, mandating features like ABS and airbags isn’t!
Source: TheCarConnection
