I’m sure Elon will get the same positively glowing reviews when the CyberCab without a steering wheel comes up for inspection later this year.
Like I’ve been saying, Elon has a history of making a lot of experts look foolish. When the first Model S was submitted to an independent lab for a crash test, it was so strong it broke the apparatus.
{{ The Incident: In 2013, during independent roof-crush tests to validate NHTSA scores, the Model S roof was so strong it broke the testing machine. }}
He has a history of making himself look foolish. Goto electrek.co and search for “Musk’s AI empire is unraveling”. Oh, and let’s not forget that salute.
Here’s the thing: these are basic ADAS features. Blind spot warning, lane keeping assistance, and pedestrian automatic emergency braking are standard or widely available on dozens of vehicles from Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, BMW, and others. The Model Y being “first” to pass doesn’t mean it’s the only vehicle with these capabilities — it means it’s the first one NHTSA has formally tested under the new framework.
The reason is notable. NHTSA originally finalized these NCAP updates in late 2024 for model year 2026 vehicles. But in September 2025, the Trump administration delayed the full implementation by one year to model year 2027, after the Alliance for Automotive Innovation — the industry’s main lobbying group — asked for more time. That delay means most automakers haven’t submitted vehicles for these tests yet, not because they can’t pass, but because the testing timeline was pushed back.
Tesla, it appears, submitted the Model Y anyway and passed. That’s good. But calling it a “high bar for the industry” when the bar is literally blind spot warnings is a stretch.
It goes to his head. Not sure I blame him for that part of it. It is very heady stuff.
He has not given to the Nazes or the KKKK as far as I know. If he did I’d be more concerned. As for his plans for a super race in his image…got news for him the image is worthless. Man plans and God laughs.
First, let’s hope that this is not a self - assessment like so many federal autommotive guidelines allow.
And please folks – put this in perspective. The sophistication of Level 2 adas features has grown over the years — this adds 4 new relatively simplistic checks to supplement the four relatively simplistic checks that already existed.
Most importantly, this says basically NOTHING about any Level 3, 4, or 5 criteria or having a safe robotaxi. These days having a really good Level 2 ADAS is more important than 10 years ago. Almost all on the market are pretty good ones these days.
Of course, from prior article, it appears that President Trump, the NHTSA are self promoting themselves as well as Tesla. Nothing at all here has any semblance of a significant accomplishment.
He campaigned heavily for Trump. He campaigned heavily for a far-right political party in Germany. There are other examples. Leap, you need to realize, Musk is a far-right white supremacist. He also has a disdain for all our safety nets. He is not our friend.
He has promoted the electric car. This is a huge savings of CO2. He has been involved with solar panels. He has provided communications in Ukraine during the war.
This is not that simple. I’d welcome driverless cars out of Tesla.
I am seeing the biggest bigots coming out of the left. It is not just the right.
More importantly I have to take him for where he is at. I do not have to agree with him or support him. But if we are to move beyond him and Trump we need to see some of our guys put on their big boy pants. So far they have not. Which is pathetic. That is our problem. Without stepping up we have nothing and we can not blame Trump for that.