Every 2023 Mazda vehicle tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) — the authority that rigorously tests vehicles on the effectiveness of their safety systems — earned the institute’s 2023 TOP SAFETY PICK Award, amongst the highest award in safety.
Mazda is proud of these accolades, but the purpose behind this testing — creating safer roads for everyone — is what fuels our continuous development of active and passive safety technologies. There is a greater sense of assuredness when a driver knows their vehicle is not only among the safest on the road, but also equipped with intuitive safety technologies to help them stay focused and avoid crashes in the first place.
Powerful Safety Technology, as Proven by Accolades
IIHS tests vehicle crash avoidance and headlight systems, categorizing the results from Basic to Superior. They also crash test vehicles in front and side impact scenarios, categorizing the results from Poor to Good. The vehicles with the best results achieve IIHS’s TOP SAFETY PICK or TOP SAFETY PICK+ awards, the criteria for which is updated annually — helping push the bar for driver, passenger, and pedestrian safety ever higher.
Crash protection design is put to the test at Mazda’s Myoshi Proving Grounds in Japan.
Passenger-Focused and Rigorous Testing
Long before any of our vehicles head in for IIHS testing, Mazda conducts its own tests — both simulated and physical — at the Myoshi Proving Grounds in Japan. Using crash test dummies equipped with hundreds of sensors, Mazda rigorously tests and fine-tunes each vehicle’s crash protection design.
These tests consider the tiniest of details, like small differences in an airbag’s positioning or the inflation rate, as well as foundational elements like how the vehicle’s structural design affects crash energy absorption.
It’s through this process that Mazda has elevated all tested vehicles to the top of IIHS’s safety charts, earning the 2023 TOP SAFETY PICK Award. These vehicles include the Mazda3 Sedan and Hatchback, CX-30, CX-5, and CX-9, and first-ever CX-50.
The first-ever 2023 CX-50 being tested in a small overlap frontal impact crash test at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. It received the top, Good rating in the test.
Prepared for Enhanced Side-Impact Testing
IIHS added a new test to the 2023 TOP SAFETY PICK / TOP SAFETY PICK+ award criteria, one aimed at addressing higher severity side impacts. The updated side crash test uses a heavier barrier traveling at a higher speed to simulate the striking vehicle. The new barrier weighs 4,200 pounds and strikes the test vehicle at 37 mph, compared with a 3,300-pound barrier traveling at 31 mph in the original evaluation.
IIHS has released five series of results on the performance of small cars, small SUVs, midsize SUVs, midsize cars, small pickups in this new, tougher side impact test. The Mazda3, CX-5, and CX-9 have all stood out in their respective segments, each receiving the highest rating. The Mazda3 and CX-5 were initially the only vehicles in their segments to do so.
IIHS put the 2021 Mazda CX-5 to the test in its new side impact evaluation, initially receiving the only top, Good rating among small SUVs. The rating carries over to the 2022 and 2023 model years.
i-ACTIVSENSE Safety Technology Lends Confidence to Every Drive
An active approach to safety, i-ACTIVSENSE safety technology uses cameras and sensors to keep drivers in tune with their surroundings. Features like Front Cross Traffic Alert, Blind Spot Monitoring, Smart Brake Support and Lane Keep Assist are standing by to help alert drivers to potential hazards, avert collisions, and help reduce the severity when one is unavoidable.
Making Today’s Drive Safer
One of the most critical components to Mazda’s active safety technology is Automatic Emergency Braking — a feature that can detect objects ahead, provide alerts, and automatically brake to help avoid a collision or lessen its severity. Automatic Emergency Braking has been shown to prevent about half of all front-to-rear striking crashes and is the backbone of Mazda’s Smart Brake Support and Smart City Brake Support, which are standard on all new Mazda vehicles.[i] Mazda’s Smart Brake Support is rated Superior in car-to-car crash avoidance by IIHS.
Driving Towards an Accident-Free Future
Mazda is striving for a crash-free world — where cars are designed to help drivers maintain confidence and control and are therefore better equipped to avoid collisions. By installing crash avoidance systems on our vehicles, we aim for no new Mazda to be involved in a fatal accident that is avoidable by 2040.
For Mazda, making safer cars is about more than just protecting the people riding in them. Our vision is for a world where all road users are protected. We consider surrounding vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, and others in our approach to advanced safety technologies.
Through Mazda Proactive Safety, we will continuously improve and innovate ways to make our world safer, as well as evolve i- ACTIVSENSE safety technologies that help drivers stay focused, while also designed to be the difference between a distracted moment resulting in a crash, and everyone arriving safely.
[i] Systems operate under certain conditions and speed ranges when forward objects are detected. These technologies are not a substitute for safe and attentive driving. There are limitations to system operation and object detection. Please see your Owner’s Manual for further details.
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