My bold.....
The one problem they might have it that they have low numbers... as an example, the Concord was the safest passenger plane in history right before the one crashed.... and then it was the worst passenger plane in history... there were too few and not that many passenger miles on them... so one crash was all it took....
Edit to add.... seems Tesla did not make the list of cars that did not have a fatality the past 4 years...
These are the safest cars on the road - May. 25, 2017
The 11 that had none...
Audi Q7 SUV
Volkswagen (
VLKAF) Tiguan two-wheel-drive SUV
Toyota Tacoma Double Cab long bed four-wheel-drive pickup
Mazda CX-9 two-wheel-drive SUV
Audi A6 all-wheel-drive
Jeep Cherokee all-wheel-drive SUV
BMW 535 i and is
BMW 535xi
Lexus RX 350 two-wheel-drive SUV
Lexus CT 200h
Mercedes-Benz M-class SUV (called GLE-class in its current version)
Sure... Numbers are low, but not that low... They do have hundreds of thousands of cars out there. But the design lends itself to be inherently safer because of the extremely-low center of gravity (better handling, lower change of rollovers), relatively greater vehicle weight (will unfortunately perform better if colliding with lower-weight vehicles), longer front crumple zone (potentially better front crash performance), super-rigid battery structure (better occupant intrusion protection especially from side impacts). These passive safety qualities are inherent or easily enabled because the car is battery-powered all-electric. These benefits are apparent in the crash test videos and, for the most part, the crash ratings reflect this. The active safety features (not exclusive to Tesla, obviously) just adds an extra layer of safety on top of this and they provide that free on all vehicles. That's a nice move.
Even though I truly believe they are the overall safest cars on the road, I will never claim that they definitively are. That's just impossible to prove in all circumstances.
And let's not try to go to the furthest reaches of the Internet to try to find one specific example to try to disprove one general statement of mine. I'm starting to feel like I need to triple-check every word I type to ensure I don't accidentally say something that would invalidate everything else I said previously. I guess I have no choice but to pick through the details and find things to show just how ridiculous this is.
As an example: that article and list is the most ridiculous thing ever. Over the years, I've seen some weird stuff from the IIHS. Remember, the IIHS is not a public agency. They are funded by the auto insurers. I'm not saying that's a bad thing -- Just that they might have some motives that we may not understand. I wonder if you could find the actual report to see how they come up with this -- Might help to understand what it means. Because a list like this with no other information is useless.
Look at how they include "Toyota Tacoma Double Cab long bed four-wheel-drive pickup". What does that mean? Are they implying that the standard cab be less safe? Or the Mazda CX-9 two-wheel-drive SUV? Is the 4WD version less safe? Or what about the BMW 535xi? I believe the 535xi was only sold for one model year (2008). That was nearly a decade ago. And this list is supposedly saying that this really specific model had no fatalities over some four year period? I guess so. I guess you can say the same thing about the Ford Model T or a red rear-wheel-drive 40 kWh Tesla Model S with sunroof and tan leather interior.
And besides, the article states that the data they are using is from 2012-2015. At that time, the Tesla Model S has not been sold for four years yet, so it's impossible for it to appear on that list.
But on the flip side, the Tesla Roadster was first sold in 2008. I know for a fact that up to at least 2013/2014 that there were no fatalities in any Tesla (Roadster included). That means, that the Tesla Roadster should definitely be included in that list. But it's not.