Tesla’s Cybertruck has entered Europe, and European road safety organizations are furious.
More than half a dozen NGOs, including the European Road Safety Council and the International Federation of Pedestrians, recently co-signed an open letter claiming that Elon Musk’s behemoth poses a number of threats to road safety in Europe. The letter was inspired by the Czech Republic’s recent decision to register one of Tesla’s trucks as a passenger vehicle and allow it to enter the continent. Safety groups say the owner of the car in question may have illegally reported its weight as a way to have it certified as an official import into the country.
Road safety advocates now seem to feel that vehicles like Tesla’s electric Hummer could cause major problems for Europeans and that these vehicles need to be kicked out of Europe with extreme prejudice. is. “It is our assessment that the approval and registration of the Cybertruck in the EU poses an unlawful risk to all other road users,” the letter said. “If this analysis is accepted, it would mean that the small number of Cybertrucks registered in the EU to date would need to be deregistered after the relevant member states confirmed that they would be removed from public roads. It will become.”
Why are safety organizations so concerned about Tesla trucks? I think it’s because they clearly seem dangerous. “The Cybertruck does not meet the basic set of European road safety standards applicable to passenger cars (M1),” the letter said. “As outlined below, these range from crash zones to sharp edges where the Cybertruck has poor or non-existent crash absorption.”
One concern about the Cybertruck is the sharp, angular corners that seem to be made for cyclists. Wired reports that the same driver who imported a Tesla truck into the Czech Republic attempted to circumvent local regulations regarding angular car design by pasting slim rubber bumpers on the four corners of the vehicle, thereby making it technically They wrote that they were able to pass regulatory review. The group said this particular rubber modification could lead to “massive imports of Cybertrucks into Europe” and that the Czech Republic would “become a backdoor route for transhipment of such dangerous vehicles to other member states.” There is a danger,” he warned.
Gizmodo reached out to Tesla for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Europe has always been far ahead of the United States when it comes to avoiding harm to consumers through sensible government regulation. Sadly, safety groups say the Cybertruck may not qualify as a safe vehicle even under drastically lowered American safety standards. “The Cybertruck’s non-existent or inadequate collision absorption capabilities pose an unacceptably high risk to all other road users,” the letter said. “Due to the self-certification system in place in the United States, the Cybertruck has not been crash-tested by any official agency. Already, the Cybertruck has met applicable lower pedestrian safety requirements in the United States. I really doubt it.”
Despite safety concerns, only one fatal Cybertruck crash has been reported. In August, a man died when his car crashed into a culvert and burst into flames in the Houston area. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating the incident this summer.
