AUSTIN, Texas — The Tesla Cybertruck has earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's highest honor, the Top Safety Pick+ award, becoming the only full-size pickup to claim the designation in the latest round of evaluations.
The recognition, announced June 24, applies to crew cab Cybertrucks built after April 2025, which received structural upgrades including front underbody reinforcements and footwell modifications. Those refinements helped the stainless-steel truck post strong results across the IIHS battery of crash tests.
A Clean Sweep of the Toughest Tests
The Cybertruck earned "Good" ratings in the small overlap front tests for both driver and passenger sides, the updated moderate overlap front test, and the updated side test, the core requirements for Top Safety Pick+. It also secured acceptable or good headlight ratings across trims and a "Good" rating for its standard front crash prevention system in pedestrian scenarios.
Most striking, the truck avoided every single collision in IIHS pedestrian front crash prevention testing, including daytime child crossing, nighttime adult crossing, and night parallel adult scenarios. That active-safety strength complements the broader rollout covered in our report on base Cybertruck deliveries beginning this month.
Leaving Rivals Behind
In the large pickup category, the contrast was stark. The Toyota Tundra earned only a standard Top Safety Pick, while the Ford F-150 and Ram 1500 failed to qualify for either award. As Teslarati reported, that positions the Cybertruck as a clear standout in occupant protection and crash avoidance among its peers.
Tesla's engineering philosophy underpins the result. The truck's exoskeleton, built from ultra-hard 30X cold-rolled stainless steel, delivers exceptional structural rigidity and a robust safety cage that resists deformation in side impacts and rollovers, while engineered load paths channel crash forces away from the occupant compartment.
Software Safety, Too
The passive structure is paired with Tesla's active safety suite, including standard automatic emergency braking that drove the truck's strong front crash prevention scores. The skateboard platform and low center of gravity further enhance stability, and the vehicle continues to gain capability through over-the-air updates like the recent FSD v14.3.4 release with Smart Summon improvements.
The award sets a new benchmark for full-size pickups and reinforces a point Tesla has made repeatedly: that combining high-strength materials with software-driven safety can deliver protection that legacy trucks struggle to match. As the Cybertruck ramp accelerates, its safety credentials give Tesla a powerful selling point in one of America's most competitive and profitable vehicle segments.
