The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has awarded the 2025 Tesla Cybertruck its highest rating, the Top Safety Pick, in the organization’s final round of evaluations for this year.
The safety designation applies only to the specific Cybertruck crew cab pickup models manufactured after April 2025. After that date, the IIHS claimed Tesla stepped up big time, making crucial modifications to the front underbody structure, boosting protection in driver-side and passenger-side frontal crashes.
In a detailed testing report, the Cybertruck received “Good” ratings – the top score – in the driver-side and passenger-side small overlap front tests, the updated moderate overlap front test (which now looks into rear-seat passenger protection), and the updated side impact test. The truck also earned “Good” for its standard pedestrian front crash prevention system and its headlight system.
The IIHS also claims that the Cybertruck’s performance in avoiding pedestrian collisions across multiple scenarios, including daytime and nighttime conditions, stood out as among the best among the trucks tested this year.
The recent recognition places the Cybertruck as one of only two large pickups to secure the Top Safety Pick for 2025, alongside the Toyota Tundra crew cab.
The announcement of the Cybertruck’s testing results was part of a larger IIHS release, which awarded 16 additional car models the safety recognition award, bringing the total 2025 Top Safety Pick+ winners to 66.
The Top Safety Pick requires “exemplary performance in crash tests, crash avoidance, and lighting.” The 66 models to earn the safety award are hopefully a sign of higher standards from auto manufacturers aimed at reducing fatal crashes across the country.
Aside from the recent recognition of the Cybertruck’s safety, it hasn’t been all rainbows and sunshine between Tesla and the IIHS this year.
The institute previously gave Tesla’s Autopilot system a “poor” rating in past evaluations, citing concerns over the driver monitoring system and “attention reminders” that the Autopilot uses to make sure drivers are tuned in, as previously reported by DX.
Meanwhile, Tesla continues pushing forward with its Robotaxi expansion in Austin this week by testing fully driverless cars without occupants, despite a Florida jury awarding over $240 million in damages in a 2019 Autopilot-related fatal crash.