For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Audi SQ8 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 Jaguar F-Pace doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Audi SQ8 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 Jaguar F-Pace doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
The SQ8’s standard pretensioning seatbelts also sense rear collisions and remove slack from the seatbelts to help protect the occupants from whiplash and other injuries. The F-Pace doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The SQ8 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 F-Pace 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.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The SQ8 has standard Maneuver Braking that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The F-Pace doesn’t offer automatic braking for stationary objects directly to the rear.
Earlier warning of stopped traffic, traffic signals, dangerous road conditions, weather, or accidents, can keep driver's safer and prevent crashes. The SQ8 has Car-to-X Services, a system that seamlessly communicates important warnings to the driver about impending danger, if they're available. The F-Pace doesn’t offer a system that can receive automated systems from infrastructure.
A passive infrared night vision system optional on the SQ8 Prestige helps the driver to more easily detect people, animals or other objects in front of the vehicle at night. Using an infrared camera to detect heat, the system then displays the image on a monitor in the dashboard. The F-Pace doesn’t offer a night vision system.
Both the SQ8 and the F-Pace have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, 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, rearview cameras and rear cross-path warning.
The Audi SQ8 weighs 679 to 1199 pounds more than the Jaguar F-Pace. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
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 SQ8 its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 131 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The F-Pace has not been tested, yet.