Since 2006, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has been awarding the vehicles that they find to be the safest in the U.S. market with their Top Safety Pick (TSP) classification, crowing the safest pickup trucks of the year. Starting in 2013, that program was expanded to include a second award – Top Safety Pick + (TSP+) – to recognize those vehicles which exceed the TSP standards. Also, the standards for each of the IIHS safety picks increase each year, pushing automakers to continually improve the safety of their vehicles. The upside is safer vehicles, but the downside is that the list of trucks that meet TSP and TSP+ standards is very short.
Only two trucks met the standards for the 2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick program, with one in each award classification. The 2026 Tesla Cybertruck Crew Cab was the only truck to receive the TSP+ award while the only truck to get achieve TSP status was the 2026 Toyota Tundra Crew Cab. The Cybertruck was also on the 2025 TSP+ list, as was the Tundra, but with the changes for 2026 standards, the Tundra was moved from TSP+ to TSP.
How the Scoring Works
For a vehicle to receive the IIHS Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ awards, they are tested in two areas, each with three categories. First, Crashworthiness includes small overlap front test, moderate overlap front test and side impact test while the Crash Avoidance & Mitigation portion of the program scores headlight testing, pedestrian front crash prevention and vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention. The scores are Good, Acceptable, Marginal and Poor.
To receive the TSP award, a vehicle must score Good in small overlap front, moderate overlap front and side impact while scoring Good or Acceptable in pedestrian front crash prevention and the headlight test. For the TSP+ award, vehicles must score Good in in small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side impact and pedestrian front crash prevention while scoring Good or Acceptable in the headlight and vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention. That last test – Front crash prevention: vehicle-to-vehicle 2.0 – is the new addition for 2026 and it is what moved the Tundra from TSP+ to TSP. The Cybertruck scored Good in that category while the Tundra does not have a score for that category.
2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick Winners
The 2026 Toyota Tundra Crew Cab, it was the only truck to receive the 2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick award, scoring Good in the three Crashworthiness tests, but scoring Good/Acceptable in the headlight test and acceptable in the pedestrian front crash test. The Tundra scored Good in the Seat Belt Reminder test and Acceptable in the LATCH test.
As mentioned above, the 2026 Tesla Cybertruck Crew Cab was the only truck to receive the IIHS TSP+ award for 2026, making it the safest pickup truck in the U.S market today. The unique electric truck scored Good in all six of the testing categories in the award program. Also, while not included in the TSP program, the Cybertruck scored Marginal in the Seat Belt Reminders test and Acceptable in the LATCH Ease of Use test.
Chevy and Ford Scored
While the bestselling pickups in the American market didn’t make the cut for the IIHS Top Safety Pick awards, they were included in the testing…and the results weren’t great.
The 2026 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew Cab received Acceptable scores in pedestrian front crash prevention and side impact testing, Marginal in small front overlap and Poor in moderate front overlap and headlight testing. Based on these results, the Chevy is the least-safe of the full-size Crew Cab pickups for the 2026 model year. Due to similarities in the trucks, these results apply to all Silverado 1500 Crew Cab pickups since 2019.
Testing went a bit better for the 2026 Ford F-150 Crew Cab. The F-150 scored Good in small front overlap, side impact, headlights (with some models scoring Acceptable) and pedestrian front crash prevention, but it scored Poor in moderate front overlap and vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention. This information applies to all F-150s built after March of 2021.
Ram 1500 – The Big 3 Safety Leader
The 2026 Ram 1500 Crew Cab proved to be the safest pickup truck from the American automakers in IIHS testing, beating the F-150 in one category. The Ram 1500 also scored Good in small front overlap, side impact, headlights (also with some models scoring Acceptable) and pedestrian front crash prevention, and the Ram also scored Poor in moderate front overlap. However, the Ram scored Marginal in vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention, allowing it to edge out the F-150 in the 2026 safety tests. This applies to 2025 and 2026 model year Ram 1500 pickups.
