The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety just handed the Tesla Cybertruck its highest honor, and it did so in a way that leaves the rest of the truck world looking flat-footed. The 2025-2026 Cybertruck crew cab earned a Top Safety Pick+ rating, making it the only full-size pickup to hit that mark in recent evaluations. For a vehicle that spent its first year as a lightning rod for internet arguments, that is a real, measurable win backed by crash data rather than opinion.
In IIHS pedestrian front crash prevention tests, @Cybertruck avoided every single collision – daytime, nighttime & different angles
It was also the only pickup to earn Top Safety Pick+ (highest award) in 2026https://t.co/BNPqT9TbsW pic.twitter.com/M6nwDisBFK
— Tesla (@Tesla) June 24, 2026
What the Cybertruck Actually Had to Do to Earn It
Top Safety Pick+ is not a participation trophy. The award applies specifically to Cybertrucks built after April 2025, following structural upgrades that included front underbody reinforcements and footwell modifications. Those changes translated into Good ratings across the small-overlap front test on both the driver and passenger sides, the updated moderate-overlap front test, and the updated side test. All three are core requirements for the plus designation, and the Cybertruck met all of them.
It also picked up acceptable or good headlight ratings across trims, a Good rating for its standard front crash prevention system in pedestrian scenarios, and acceptable to good marks in vehicle-to-vehicle testing. The pedestrian results are the ones worth pausing on. In the IIHS front crash prevention tests, the Cybertruck avoided every collision, including a daytime child crossing, a nighttime adult crossing, and a nighttime parallel adult crossing. Not reduced the impact. Avoided the collision entirely, in every configuration.
The Competition Did Not Keep Up
Here is where the story gets fun for anyone who has watched legacy trucks coast on their reputations. In the large pickup category, the Toyota Tundra managed only a standard Top Safety Pick, one rung below. The Ford F-150 and Ram 1500, two of the best-selling vehicles in America, did not qualify for either award. The Cybertruck did not just edge out its rivals on a technicality. It stood alone at the top of the class in both occupant protection and crash avoidance.
The results are not without an asterisk, and it would be dishonest to skip it. The same rigid stainless-steel construction that helps the Cybertruck ace U.S. crash tests is exactly why regulators in the UK and much of Europe keep it off public roads. Their pedestrian-protection standards require rounded surfaces on protruding parts, and the Cybertruck’s sharp external edges do not comply. Critics also argue that the truck’s mass and unyielding body could transfer more force to smaller vehicles in a collision. Those are fair points, and they explain why a truck celebrated for safety in one market is banned in another.
The Engineering Behind the Score
Tesla’s whole design philosophy shows up in these numbers. The Cybertruck’s exoskeleton uses ultra-hard 30X cold-rolled stainless steel, which provides exceptional structural rigidity and a safety cage that resists deformation during side impacts and rollovers. Engineers built integrated load paths to route crash energy away from the occupant compartment while allowing specific zones to absorb force in a controlled manner. The post-April 2025 refinements to the front underbody sharpened performance specifically in overlap crashes.
Passive structure is only half of it. The standard Collision Avoidance Assist system with automatic emergency braking is what drove those perfect pedestrian avoidance scores, and the skateboard platform’s low center of gravity helps keep the truck stable enough to dodge certain crashes before they ever happen. High-strength materials, smart structural design, and software-driven active safety all pulling in the same direction is how you end up as the safest pickup on the market.
The AWD Cybertruck Is Finally Hitting the Streets
The timing on all this could not be better, because the trim most buyers have been waiting for is now reaching customers. Tesla launched the Dual-Motor All-Wheel-Drive Cybertruck back in February, initially at a headline-grabbing $59,990, and has since started assigning VINs and rolling out customer deliveries. If you ordered one, it is either in your driveway or about to be.
The AWD is the version that finally makes the value math work. You get a 325-mile range rating, 7,500 pounds of towing capacity, a 0-60 time of 4.1 seconds, a powered tonneau, three bed outlets, Powershare capability, coil springs with adaptive damping for a genuinely refined ride, Steer-by-Wire with four-wheel steering, a 6-foot by 4-foot composite bed, and a powered frunk. The intro pricing was a limited-time play that annoyed a lot of early fans, and the truck now sits at $69,990, but the hardware you get for the money still undercuts most premium trucks on capability. This is the Cybertruck that goes mainstream.
Why Forged Wheels Are the Upgrade That Makes Sense
Now that AWD trucks are landing and owners are actually living with them, the first real upgrade conversation is wheels, and it should be. A set of aftermarket forged wheels is one of the few modifications that improve how the Cybertruck looks, drives, and performs all at once. Forged construction is dramatically stronger than cast alloy, so you can run a larger, more aggressive design without adding dead weight. In many cases, you actually shed unsprung mass, and reducing unsprung weight is one of the most effective changes you can make to a heavy EV. It sharpens steering response, helps the adaptive damping do its job, and can even claw back a little range that fat off-road tires tend to eat up.
There is also the obvious point that the Cybertruck is already a statement, and a proper set of forged wheels finishes that statement instead of leaving the truck on its factory rollers. Whether you are chasing a cleaner street stance or a wider, more purposeful off-road setup, forged wheels are where a Cybertruck build should start. On a truck this capable and this visible, cheaping out on the one component that carries the whole thing makes no sense.
The Bottom Line
The Cybertruck earning the only Top Safety Pick+ in the full-size pickup class is the kind of validation that quiets a lot of noise. Pair that with an AWD trim that finally nails the price-to-capability ratio and is now reaching real customers, and the Cybertruck has never been an easier truck to recommend. For owners taking delivery right now, the safest pickup on the road is also a fantastic canvas, and a set of forged wheels is the smartest first move you can make.
Source: Teslarati
