2021 Ford F-150 snags the IIHS’ Top Safety Pick award – Roadshow [CNET]

Ford’s 2021 F-150 has been awarded the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Top Safety Pick award, which is a significant improvement over last year, when poor headlights kept it from getting the IIHS award. The IIHS made the announcement on Tuesday.

While the availability of improved headlights was enough to push the F-150 over the line into Top Safety Pick, those headlights not being standard across the range kept it from the more exclusive Top Safety Pick Plus award.

To qualify for the Top Safety Pick award, a vehicle has to rate as good or better in all six of the IIHS’ stringent crash tests — driver and passenger small and moderate overlap, roof strength and head restraint. It also has to have an available crash prevention system that scores as either Advanced or Superior in both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian tests.

The F-150’s Top Safety Pick award makes it only the second full-size truck to get the award for the 2021 model year. The other truck is the 2021 Ram 1500.