Tesla updates Model 3’s headlights, earns better rating from IIHS

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has updated the Tesla Model 3’s safety rating after the automaker made some changes to the headlights to earn the top mark.

Earlier this year, the IIHS started releasing its first safety ratings for Model 3.

The agency has yet to release any crash test results, but it did say that Model 3 has a ‘superior rating for front crash prevention’.

The only other test result that they released was about the headlights, which received an ‘acceptable’ rating.

Here’s what they had to say about the headlights at the time:

Low beams

On the straightaway, visibility was good on the left side of the road and inadequate on the right side. On curves, visibility was fair in all 4 tests.

The low beams created some glare.

High beams

On the straightaway, visibility was good on the right side of the road and fair on the left side. On curves, visibility was good on the gradual right curve and fair on the sharp right and both left curves.

High-beam assist compensates for some limitations of this vehicle’s low beams on the straightaway and all 4 curves.

Apparently, Tesla made some changes to the headlights starting in June 2018 and now IIHS has retested them and it found that the automaker has addressed the concerns listed above.

Here are charts of their test results before (left) and after (right) the changes:

We contacted Tesla to know more about the changes made to the Model 3’s headlights in order to achieve those results and we will update if we get an answer.

The organization is notoriously stringent on its headlight tests and not many vehicles achieved a ‘good’ rating.

While this is the extent of the safety test that IIHS has released about Model 3 so far, NHTSA has released its crash test results for Model 3 and it achieved the lowest probability of injury of any vehicle ever tested by the agency.