For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Audi 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 Honda Passport doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The Q8’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Passport doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the Q8 and Passport have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The 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 Passport’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 Q8’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 Passport doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The 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 Passport 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 Q8 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 Passport doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
When descending a steep, off-road slope, the Q8’s standard Hill Descent Assist allows you to creep down safely. The Passport doesn’t offer Hill Descent Assist.
Earlier warning of stopped traffic, traffic signals, dangerous road conditions, weather, or accidents, can keep driver's safer and prevent crashes. The Q8 has Car-to-X Services, a system that seamlessly communicates important warnings to the driver about impending danger, if they're available. The Passport doesn’t offer a system that can receive automated systems from infrastructure.
A passive infrared night vision system optional on the Q8 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 Passport doesn’t offer a night vision system.
The Q8 offers an optional Top View Cameras to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Passport only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
Both the Q8 and Passport have rear cross-traffic warning, but the Q8 has Automatic Brake Activation (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Passport’s Cross Traffic Monitor doesn’t automatically brake.
The Q8’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 Passport doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Q8 and the Passport 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, rearview cameras and rear cross-path warning.
The Audi Q8 weighs 787 to 820 pounds more than the Honda Passport. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Audi Q8 is safer than the Honda Passport:
|
Q8 |
Passport |
OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
Chest Compression |
.5 inches |
.6 inches |
Neck Injury Risk |
34% |
35% |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
47/47 lbs. |
478/436 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 flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Audi Q8 is safer than the Honda Passport:
|
Q8 |
Passport |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
60 |
109 |
Hip Force |
260 lbs. |
269 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
141 |
233 |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
15 inches |
15 inches |
HIC |
282 |
406 |
Hip Force |
593 lbs. |
838 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Side impacts caused 23% of all road fatalities in 2018, down from 29% in 2003, when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced its side barrier test. In order to continue improving vehicle safety, the IIHS has started using a more severe side impact test: 37 MPH (up from 31 MPH), with a 4180-pound barrier (up from 3300 pounds). The results of this newly developed test demonstrates that the Audi Q8 is much safer than the Passport:
|
Q8 |
Passport |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Structure |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
86 |
206 |
Neck Tension |
223 lbs. |
335 lbs. |
Torso |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Torso Max Deflection |
.94 in |
1.22 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
5 MPH |
5 MPH |
Pelvis |
ACCEPTABLE |
MARGINAL |
Pelvis Force |
937 lbs. |
1339 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Passenger Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
40 |
206 |
Neck Tension |
89 lbs. |
178 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
45 lbs. |
67 lbs. |
Torso |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Shoulder Deflection |
.43 in |
.94 in |
Shoulder Force |
134 lbs. |
335 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
1.1 in |
2.05 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
9 MPH |
12 MPH |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
The Audi Q8 achieved a “Top Safety Pick” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for the 2024 model year. This recognition was based on its impressive performance in the small overlap frontal crash test, updated side impact crash test, headlight evaluations, and pedestrian crash prevention testing. The Passport is not a “Top Safety Pick” for 2024.