On the morning of Friday, May 29, a couple was driving their Tesla Model 3 on the Mulholland Highway in Malibu, California, when the vehicle plunged 300 feet down the cliff.
The good news is that neither the male driver nor the female passenger sustained any life-threatening injuries in this crash. With mild injuries, both occupants were able to walk away from the car on their own, NBC4 (LA/Southern California) reported (video below).
The occupants of the crashed Tesla Model 3 were taken to the hospital for the treatment of mild injuries and precautionary medical checkups.
“Glad they’re ok,” Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk commented on the news on X.
In such an intense crash, occupants walking away safely makes a strong practical statement about the safety standards of Tesla vehicles.
On Friday morning, a Tesla Model 3 with two passengers plunged 300 feet down after the driver veered off a cliff on Mulholland Highway in Malibu.
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) May 31, 2026
Both were rescued and airlifted to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The @Tesla Model 3 saved their lives. pic.twitter.com/sKK23IPCwJ
Just yesterday, I was watching a famous travel vlogger’s video of the Mulholland Highway, and wondering if someone tumbles from the cliff. Today, I saw this news.
Malibu firefighters rescued the Tesla Model 3 occupants and airlifted them from the 300-foot depth. Channel abc7 reported that the driver of the car was already outside the vehicle and calling for help when the rescue team arrived.
However, the female passenger was pinned inside the vehicle. She was also rescued by the team with ‘moderate injuries’ and sent to the trauma center.
Tesla Safety in Such Incidents
Earlier this year in China, in a similar incident, occupants of a Tesla Model Y walked away safely after falling off a cliff. Interestingly, in both of these incidents, Tesla vehicles did not catch fire.
In a real-world safety test, a YouTuber also pushed his Tesla Model 3 off a cliff just to check if the electric vehicle caught fire after falling down. It also did not catch fire.
The occupants of these incidents remained safe from any fire incident, as well as benefiting from the structural rigidity and safety design of the Tesla vehicles.
In a 2022 promo video, an insurance company faked a fire after crash-testing a Tesla. However, the real-world incidents and testing reveal that the chances of catching fire in a fall from a cliff or a rollover accident are rare.
The rigid battery floor helps keep a low center of gravity and acts as a firewall against any intrusion of a sharp object like wood or stone in a similar incident like this one.
Tesla vehicles equipped with the HW4/AI4 computer or later are able to anticipate a crash using Tesla Vision AI. This enables the vehicle to deploy the airbags up to 70 milliseconds in advance. This feature was introduced in the 2025.32.3 update last year and is going through continuous improvement with new over-the-air software updates.
Safety Benefits of a Tesla Glass Roof
All Tesla vehicles come with a complete panoramic glass roof, expanding from the front windshield to the rear window. This doesn’t mean the roofs of Teslas are not tough; they can stay intact even in a rollover accident.
The glass used in Tesla vehicles is the automaker’s proprietary, in-house technology. The benefit of this type of glass roof in such an incident as we have witnessed above is that the occupants can be rescued from the vehicle easily. The rescue workers don’t need to cut a metal roof to pull out the occupants of the vehicle.
If you closely look at the fallen Tesla Model 3 in the videos above and the picture below, the car’s glass roof is opened from the front and rear. It also did not completely shatter as the vehicle dropped from a height of 300 feet. This provides easy access to stuck occupants inside a Tesla and makes it easier for the rescuers as well.
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