Tesla Model S climbs back to top of Consumer Reports safety ratings
2017 Tesla Model S
The Tesla Model S has retaken its spot as the luxury sedan that gets the highest ratings from Consumer Reports after the electrified car gained back automatic emergency braking that works at all legal road speeds.
Some may recall Tesla restored the automatic braking during an update to vehicles earlier this year, but the system only worked at speeds up to twenty eight mph.
Now, Tesla has restored the system’s full-speed capabilities and the Model S sedans are capable of braking at highway speeds up to ninety mph.
Consumer Reports had downgraded both the Tesla Model S and Model X in April of this year after Tesla’s decision to pull AEB as a standard feature was met with scrutiny.
The hardware remained onboard, but the feature was liquidated from cars built after October two thousand sixteen due to their fresh suite of sensor hardware.
The disappearance was due to Tesla’s switch from supplier technology to an in-house solution; the electrified car maker had promised the feature would comeback by the end of 2016.
2017 Tesla Model S
The end of the year came and went without updates to the emergency-braking system or a specific timetable from Tesla—and CR notified the automaker it planned to lower its vehicles’ ratings on April 21, 2017.
Five days later, Tesla Model S sedans received an update that included the twenty eight mph-limited version of the system.
Consumer Reports restored some points to the Model S and Model X following the safety update, but the Lexus LS had remained the consumer guide’s top luxury sedan—until now.
Tesla may be celebrating the Model S’s come back to the top, but the Model X utility vehicle remains near the bottom of its segment.
It did regain a few points with the full-range automatic emergency braking restored.
Last month, Tesla also flipped out its latest Autopilot update, which was deemed “sleek as silk” by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
2017 Tesla Model S
The update includes significant tweaks to the AutoPilot system’s sensors to curb “dancing” inbetween lane markers—but proprietor movie demonstrated it remains a problem when the markings all of a sudden disappeared.
The latest Autopilot system, meantime, also ushers in the capability for the electrical car to park in perpendicular spaces.
Tesla brought in its latest Autopilot head after ex-chief, Chris Lattner, determined the position wasn’t a good fit for him after only five months on the job.
Stanford University professor Andrej Karpathy will lead all Autopilot-related development as of June.