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EnglishWhat Is IIHS-HLDI and What Does iihs.org Offer?
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IIHS-HLDI is an independent, nonprofit scientific and educational organization focused on reducing deaths, injuries, and property damage from motor vehicle crashes. Its website, iihs.org, is a free public resource for vehicle safety ratings, award lists, crash-avoidance research, and consumer safety guides. It is most useful if you are shopping for a vehicle, researching a road-safety topic, or looking for practical guidance on teen drivers, child passengers, or vehicle selection.
Vehicle Safety Ratings and Awards
The site's most direct consumer tool is its passenger vehicle ratings lookup. You can search by make and model, and the search supports specifying a model year. Suggestions appear as you type, so you can move from a brand name to a specific vehicle and year without browsing long lists.
The site also publishes:
- Award winners — vehicles that have earned IIHS recognition, presented as a standalone list.
- Commercial vehicles — a separate section for work vehicles rather than passenger cars.
These sections are useful when you want to compare candidates before shopping. A rating or award is a starting filter, not a substitute for checking the specific trim and model year you plan to buy.
Road Safety Research by Topic
IIHS organizes its research into key road-safety areas, each with its own page. The topics listed on the site include:
| Topic area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Advanced driver assistance | Front crash prevention, partial automation, and the limitations of crash-prevention technologies |
| Alcohol and drugs | Alcohol and crash risk, laws, and marijuana enforcement |
| Distracted driving | Cellphone use and crash risk, device laws, and technologies to combat distraction |
| Large trucks | Trucking regulations, fatigue, braking systems, and underride |
| Motorcycles | Helmet laws, ABS, and motorcycle types |
| Pedestrians and bicyclists | Vehicle designs, intersections, crash-avoidance technologies, and daylight savings time |
| Red light running | Effectiveness of cameras, signal timing, and communities using red light safety cameras |
| Seat belts | Why belts matter, state laws, reminders, and interlocks |
| Speed | Dangers of speed, by the numbers, traffic calming, and intelligent speed assistance |
This structure suits readers who want a topic overview rather than a single answer. For example, if you are weighing whether a vehicle's automatic emergency braking is enough, the advanced driver assistance section explains both the technology and its limits.
Consumer Guides
Beyond ratings and research, the site offers guides aimed at specific decisions:
- Young driver safety — a guide for parents of teens.
- Driving with kids — a guide for parents and caregivers.
- Shopping for safety — a guide for new and used vehicle buyers.
The teen-safety guide is produced in collaboration with Consumer Reports, which the site describes as taking guesswork out of finding a used or new vehicle for a young driver. If your task is choosing a first car for a teenager, this guide plus the ratings lookup covers both the vehicle-selection and the safety-context sides.
News and Featured Work
The site's news section highlights recent findings and explains them in plain language. Examples from the page include:
- A Utah law linked to a long-term drop in alcohol-related crashes after the state imposed a stricter blood-alcohol limit.
- An insight piece on the real reasons repair costs are high, noting that sensors for automatic emergency braking and blind spot detection are often blamed but that many other causes exist.
- A report that cargo vans and heavy-duty pickups lag behind passenger vehicles in front crash prevention.
- A note that the Nissan Kicks joined the ranks of IIHS award winners.
- A finding that Waymo's driverless cars crash less often than human drivers.
These items are useful for context, but treat individual news posts as summaries of specific studies rather than general rules.
How to Use the Site
- Start with the ratings lookup if you have a vehicle in mind. Enter the make and model, add the model year, and review the rating for that configuration.
- Check the award winners list if you are still narrowing candidates and want a shortlist of recognized vehicles.
- Open the relevant research topic if you want to understand a safety technology or law before deciding.
- Use the consumer guides for teen drivers, child passengers, or general new/used vehicle shopping.
A practical check: ratings and awards can differ by model year and trim, so confirm the exact vehicle you are considering rather than relying on a nameplate alone. The site does not present itself as a dealer or seller; it is a research and education resource, so pricing and availability come from elsewhere.