For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Genesis GV80 are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The Chevrolet Traverse doesn’t offer height-adjustable front seat belts.
Both the GV80 and Traverse have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The GV80 has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Traverse’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The Genesis GV80 has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Traverse doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The GV80 offers optional Parking Collision-Avoidance Assist-Reverse that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Traverse doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the GV80. But it costs extra on the Traverse.
The GV80 has a standard blind spot warning system that uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them and moves the vehicle back into its lane. A system to reveal vehicles in the Traverse’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the GV80 has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist and automatically engage the brakes. Chevrolet charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Traverse and the Traverse’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert does not include automatic braking.
The GV80’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Traverse doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the GV80 and the Traverse have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, front seat center airbag, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras and available around view monitors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Genesis GV80 is safer than the Chevrolet Traverse:
|
|
GV80 |
Traverse |
|
|
Passenger |
|
| STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
| HIC |
263 |
333 |
| Chest Compression |
.6 inches |
.9 inches |
| Neck Injury Risk |
34% |
35.2% |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH, results indicate that the Genesis GV80 is safer than the Chevrolet Traverse:
|
|
GV80 |
Traverse |
|
|
Front Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| HIC |
29 |
69 |
| Chest Movement |
.5 inches |
.9 inches |
| Abdominal Force |
101 lbs. |
161 lbs. |
|
|
Rear Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| HIC |
70 |
134 |
| Spine Acceleration |
26 G’s |
39 G’s |
| Hip Force |
458 lbs. |
716 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Acceptable” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the GV80 its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 128 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Traverse last would have qualified as only a standard “Top Safety Pick” in 2017.