The IIHS tightened their crash test standards for 2024, resulting in the Top Safety Pick winners circle being reduced by about half, from 101 vehicles in total to just 48. A weird anomaly amid this mass culling: one small and one midsize truck crept their way onto the list, the Toyota Tacoma and the Hyundai Santa Cruz. Neither of these trucks held an award in 2023, but somehow, with the IIHS prioritizing headlights and front-collision avoidance, and ramping up the impact force in the side crash test, the Santa Cruz and Tacoma made the cut even as the rest of the industry was losing awards left and right.