The U.S. Government Finally Crash-Tested The Tesla Cybertruck And It Did Great

Ever since the Tesla Cybertruck hit the market, many folks wondered why it hadn’t been crash-tested. For months, there’s been no rating by the U.S.’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and nothing from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety — what gives? As it is the internet in 2025, many voiced that there might be some kind of conspiracy at hand, and that maybe the truck isn’t as safe as Tesla says. But now we have official government crash test results from NHTSA, and they’re good. Very good.

The truth is that, even though NHTSA doesn’t physically crash test every car, automakers have to prove that their vehicle will meet minimum requirements. Per NHTSA:

Even though a vehicle may not have been rated under the New Car Assessment Program, all vehicles sold in the United States are certified by the vehicle manufacturer as complying with all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards (CFR Title 49: Chapter V, Part 571).  These standards cover a broad range of safety issues, from windshield wipers and brakes to crashworthiness and fuel integrity.

Interestingly, NHTSA regularly puts out a list of vehicles it plans to test, but neither the document “NHTSA Announces Model Year 2024 Vehicles To Be Included In 5-Star Safety Ratings Tests” nor “NHTSA Announces Model Year 2025 Vehicles for 5-Star Safety Ratings Testing” mentions the Cybertruck. And yet, here we are, with a Cybertruck crash test in the books. Interesting.

Let’s get straight to the results:

Five star frontal, five star side, four star rollover, five star overall — that’s pretty good! How does it compare to other pickup trucks like the F-150 or Chevy Silverado?

The same ratings as the F-150, a bit better than the Silverado. How does it compare to the only other electric pickup truck rated thus far, the F-150 Lightning?:

By star-rating, it looks like the Cybertruck performs a little better, though the overall score is the same.

I’d have liked to see a five-star rollover score from a vehicle whose 1600-pound battery pack acts as a floor, but hey, the Cybertruck’s factory 35-inch tires and the general shape of its steel body probably made that tricky. Still, it’s worth noting that the Cybertruck scored a 12.4% “Rollover Risk” score from NHTSA. That’s 0.2% lower than the F-150 Lightning’s rollover risk (and that doesn’t have nearly as large tires), and way lower than the gasoline F-150 and Silverado (which each scored over 19%). To put that into context:

• 5 star rating: 10% Rollover Risk or less
• 4 star rating: Between 11% and 20% Rollover Risk
• 3 star rating: Between 21% and 30% Rollover Risk
• 2 star rating: Between 31% and 40% Rollover Risk
• 1 star rating: Over 41% Rollover Risk

So the Cybertruck got close to a five star rollover rating, but not quite.

Overall it’s a good result that puts the Cybertruck up there with the safest pickup trucks ever tested. But before I go any further, I should note that this crash test doesn’t address concerns related to pedestrian safety, nor does it address concerns about how the Cybertruck’s overall structure could — in a crash with a perhaps-less-armor-like vehicle — compromise the safety of the other vehicle’s occupants. We just don’t have the answers to those questions at the moment; all we know is that, in front, side, and rollover crash testing, the Tesla Cybertruck scores five stars, five stars, and four stars, respectively, with an overall safety rating of five stars out of five stars.

Let’s dig into that a bit, shall we?

Front Barrier Impact Test: 5 Stars

NHTSA has reports on the front and side crash tests, and my god are they long. The side impact pole test is over 130 pages, while the front rigid barrier and side deformable barrier crash test documents are over 180 pages each. I’ll take a quick look through each and give you a few of the highlights; let’s start by talking about what the frontal crash test even is; from NHTSA:

The frontal barrier test simulates a head-on collision between two similar vehicles. The test vehicle is crashed into a flat, rigid barrier at 35 mph.

You could call this a fairly mild crash test. It’s conducted at 35 mph and involves hitting the front of the vehicle against a flat wall; IIHS, on the other hand, conducts its crash tests at 40 mph (that means 30% more kinetic energy), and its Small Overlap crash involves only a quarter of the vehicle’s frontal area hitting a rigid barrier. It’s no wonder some have criticized federal crash testing as being a bit too easy, even if recent reforms rewarding driver-assist features are a step in the right direction.

Anyway, let’s hop into this absurdly long report showing a “2024 TESLA CYBERTRUCK BEAST 4-DOOR TRUCK” getting its face smashed in. It’s dated January 14, 2025, so it appears this crash test was put into motion by the previous administration, for those who are curious.

You can see some of the results of the 35 mph crash test here in this table. For both the driver anthropomorphic test device (ATD) and the passenger ATD, there are the classic HIC values (Head Injury Criteria), there’s chest compression in millimeters, there’s a neck injury predictor figure (NIJ), and you can see some forces on the neck and femur, all compared to threshold values.

If you’d like to see similar tables for the F-150, Silverado, and F-150 Lightning, here they are:

As I said, the crash report is insanely detailed; if you want to know the exact test conditions — the tire specs, the temperature, the seatback angle, the weight of the truck, and on and on — that’s all in there. Check out this description of the driver’s position in the cab:

But that’s not what you’re here for. You want to see the crash imagery, so let’s just throw those out there. Here’s a look at the front before the crash:

And here’s the front after the crash test:

Here’s a view from the passenger’s side before the crash:

And here’s the passenger’s side after the crash:

Here’s the driver’s side, pre-crash:

Here’s the driver’s side, post-crash:

Here’s a three-quarter view of the front passenger’s side before the crash:

Here’s that same right front three-quarter view after the crash:

Here’s the frunk before the crash:

Here’s the frunk after the crash (you can see a number of cooling system components):

Here’s the high voltage battery and front subframe pre-crash:

Here’s the battery and front subframe post-crash:

Here’s the dummy in the driver’s seat before the crash:

Here’s the dummy after the crash:

Here’s the windshield view of the two front-seat dummies before the crash:

Here’s the windshield-view of the two front crash dummies after the crash (you’ll notice localized cracking in the windshield ahead of the passenger; I think this resulted from airbag deployment):

To get an idea for how much the front end crushed, NHTSA breaks the frontal area into zones C1 through C6 (also called “Damage Profile Distances”). NHTSA measures the distance from a certain datum to each zone before the crash, and then after, noting the difference as the “crush”:

As you can see, maximum crush was 445mm, or about 17.5 inches, and it happened at DPD 5, on the right front of the Cybertruck.

Anyway, that’s enough for now about frontal crash test results; for fun, here are some photos of the Cybertruck strapped down to the static rollover device for better under-vehicle viewing:

OK, let’s move on to the side crash tests.

Moving Deformable Barrier Side Impact Test: Five Stars

Here’s NHTSA’s description of the Moving Deformable Barrier Side Impact Test:

The side barrier test simulates an intersection collision between two vehicles. A moving non-rigid barrier, angled at 27 degrees, is crashed into the driver’s side of the test vehicle at 38.5 mph.

Basically, you’re driving at 38.5 mph and some car hits you at a bit of an angle through an intersection — that’s what this test is supposed to emulate. Here’s the abstract showing driver and passenger dummy HIC, thoracic rib deflection, and other forces on the dummy:

Since I’m sure some of you are curious, here are the F-150, Silverado, and F-150 Lightning’s deformable barrier side crash test results:

I’ll spare you any info on the test setup/conditions and instead just get straight into the pictures:

If you’re curious how far the side of the truck was pushed in by the deformable barrier, NHTSA’s datasheet breaks the side of the truck into four “levels,” with the first being the rocker panel and the fifth (and last) being the roof/window top:

If you look at the photos of the test vehicle, you’ll see that this area of the truck is pretty well outlined by the black and yellow tape. In the image above, the X-axis’ “Zero” is where the barrier hits the car on the left side (towards its front), while the increasing numbers represent distance from the left side of the barrier-impact.

The plot above shows displacement of the five different levels at various distances along the side of the Cybertruck. You can see that there’s lots of displacement at the sill and at the occupant’s H-point. The H-point displacement rises, then drops, then rises again, telling me that the B-pillar is probably at about 1200 mm from the left side of the barrier impact, as the pillar adds stiffness that would explain the drop in displacement. It looks like maximum crush was about 90 mm (less than 4 inches), and that was about in the middle of the rear door.

Anyway, here are some static rollover images post-side barrier crash, along with an action shot at the end:

Side Impact Pole Test

Let’s talk about the side pole test a bit. Here’s NHTSA’s description:

The side pole test simulates a vehicle colliding into a fixed object like a tree or utility pole. The test vehicle, angled at 75 degrees, is crashed into a rigid pole at 20 mph.

Here are the Cybertruck’s results:

All Images: NHTSA