Crowd Rules the Cybertruck Safer Than the G-Wagon, a Truck Britain Won't Let on Its Roads

The verdict is in, and it lands with a stainless-steel thud: the crowd says Tesla's Cybertruck is safer than the Mercedes G-Wagon. Two status symbols that look like they were built to survive the end of civilisation went head to head, and the steel wedge beat the brick. As a man who believes free people trading free opinions is one of the Enlightenment's quieter triumphs, I am delighted the question got asked. As a man who also believes in evidence, I would like a word with the jury.

Here is the evidence, because the rule of law starts with the record. No single head-to-head test of these two vehicles exists. They were judged by different programmes in different years. The 2025 Cybertruck got a 'good' crashworthiness rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, with protection described as excellent for the driver and solid for rear passengers, but it scored only 'acceptable' and 'marginal' in other categories, according to its Wikipedia entry. The same page notes that safety experts worry its stiff, angular body could hurt pedestrians and cyclists and leave less crumple zone to soak up a crash, and that as of 2025 the truck was barred from UK roads and fails EU pedestrian standards as a type, although individual cars can sometimes still be registered.

The G-Class has its own paper trail. The second-generation W463 was the first G ever formally crash tested, and Euro NCAP gave it ninety percent for adult occupants and eighty-three percent for children in 2019, its Wikipedia page records. Chest protection in frontal crashes was weaker, and the pedestrian score is listed as seventy-three percent in one spot and seventy-eight in another on the same page. So nobody's halo is spotless, but only one of these two has been told by a European regulator, in effect, to mind the people on the pavement.

The crowd, it turns out, did not care much about the pavement. On Morfi's opinion markets, where people back their views with real money, 'Yes, the Cybertruck is safer' sits at 60% consensus, with 'No' at 40%. That comes from 46 traders who put $167,697 behind their convictions in less than a day of trading. My colleague Penny Sterling saw the Cybertruck take the early lead, and the lead has held. My reading is that the crowd answered the question about who survives inside the truck, which is where the Cybertruck's best grade sits, and quietly left out everyone outside it.

Now for my opinion, preachy as ever. Safety is not private property. John Locke taught that my liberty ends where your rights begin, and a vehicle that guards its driver well while worrying the people it might hit is a good illustration of what economists call an externality. I admire the crowd's confidence, and I won't argue with a market. But a safety verdict that leaves out cyclists, children on crossings and the pensioner with a shopping trolley is a verdict on comfort, not safety. On the evidence I've read, the G-Wagon's fuller and older European record deserved more credit than 40%.

What to watch next: any new crash test that finally puts the two under the same regime, and whether Britain or Brussels changes its stance on the Cybertruck, which would shake this market harder than any ad campaign. Until then the question stays open and so does the market. Join it on Morfi, put your money where your conscience is, and tell the crowd whether safety stops at the driver's door.