For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Audi RS Q8 have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Cadillac Escalade-V doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row seat belts.
Both the RS Q8 and Escalade-V have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The RS Q8 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 Escalade-V’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 RS Q8 has a standard Secondary Collision Brake Assist, which automatically applies the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Escalade-V doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
Earlier warning of stopped traffic, traffic signals, dangerous road conditions, weather, or accidents, can keep driver's safer and prevent crashes. The RS Q8 has Car-to-X Services, a system that seamlessly communicates important warnings to the driver about impending danger, if they're available. The Escalade-V doesn’t offer a system that can receive automated systems from infrastructure.
Both the RS Q8 and Escalade-V have rear cross-traffic warning, but the RS Q8 has Automatic Brake Activation (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Escalade-V’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert doesn’t automatically brake.
For better protection of the passenger compartment, the RS Q8 uses safety cell construction with a three-dimensional high-strength frame that surrounds the passenger compartment. It provides extra impact protection and a sturdy mounting location for door hardware and side impact beams. The Escalade-V uses a body-on-frame design, which has no frame members above the floor of the vehicle.
Both the RS Q8 and the Escalade-V have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, around view monitors, rear cross-path warning and available night vision systems.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Audi RS Q8 is safer than the Cadillac Escalade-V:
|
|
RS Q8 |
Escalade-V |
| OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
|
Passenger |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
| Chest Compression |
.5 inches |
.6 inches |
| Neck Injury Risk |
34% |
47% |
| Neck Stress |
120 lbs. |
272 lbs. |
| Leg Forces (l/r) |
47/47 lbs. |
333/811 lbs. |
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 post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Audi RS Q8 is safer than the Cadillac Escalade-V:
|
|
RS Q8 |
Escalade-V |
|
|
Into Pole |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| Hip Force |
593 lbs. |
764 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the RS Q8, with its four-star roll-over rating, is 6.1% less likely to roll over than the Escalade-V, which received a three-star rating.
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 RS Q8 its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 131 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Escalade-V has not been tested, yet.