The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety makes it tougher yearly to earn the group’s Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ awards. The group is now outlining the modifications to the standards for 2024, and confirmed to Motor1 the modifications it plans to make to the assessments for 2025.
There are vital modifications to the IIHS award standards for this 12 months. For 2024, score from the IIHS is now crucial for the aspect crash check with a heavier barrier for a TSP or TSP+ award. Previously, the group had separate day and night time pedestrian entrance crash prevention evaluations. Now, it is combining them into one check with runs in each circumstances so {that a} car cannot excel throughout only one time of day and get an award. An acceptable or good score is important to be eligible for both honor.
During its entrance overlap check final 12 months, IIHS started putting a dummy behind the driver. To get a Top Safety Pick+ in 2024, a car should rating an appropriate or good score. The group can also be revising the way it scores the small overlap entrance crash check. The driver- and passenger-side evaluations are actually a single class, and the score is the decrease of the 2 outcomes. All trim ranges of a car have to obtain good or acceptable scores for the mannequin to be eligible for both award.
Things are going to be even more durable subsequent 12 months, in accordance with the group.
“We will raise the bar again with more challenging criteria for 2025 Top Safety Picks, though the updates will be more modest,” IIHS spokesperson Joe Young advised Motor1. “The changes will relate to our updated moderate overlap crash test. A good or acceptable rating in that test is one requirement for the 2024 Top Safety Pick+ award. In 2025, the “plus” award will require a good rating, while the regular Top Safety Pick will require an acceptable rating.”
The IIHS award standards bases its award standards on the calendar 12 months, not a car’s mannequin 12 months. This means even when 2025 fashions start arriving in showrooms later this 12 months, the group will nonetheless use the 2024 guidelines for testing them.
So far, there are 22 Top Safety Pick+ winners and 49 autos with the Top Safety Pick for 2024. For comparability, there have been 28 TSP+ autos and 20 TSP fashions when the IIHS announced its 2023 criteria.
