Toyota Grand Highlander vs. Mazda CX-90 vs. Honda Pilot: Which Is Safest? There's One Clear Winner
When families shop for three-row crossovers, safety is a top priority. Today, we do a deep dive into some of the most commonly purchased family SUVs to find out which one pulls ahead. In April 2026, the IIHS published crash test results for the Mazda CX-90, Honda Pilot, and Toyota Highlander family under its latest, more stringent testing protocols. One earned perfect marks. Two did not. The test that separated them focuses on rear-passenger safety, which is exactly where children and smaller family members typically sit.
Standard safety features
Every Mazda CX-90 comes standard with i-Activsense, including adaptive cruise, automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert. Standard AWD across the lineup adds an active-safety layer that the other two charge extra for. Mazda does not gate safety features behind higher trims. The Pilot includes Honda Sensing as standard across all trims with automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, lane-keeping, adaptive cruise, and traffic sign recognition. CabinWatch, a camera system that lets the driver monitor rear passengers on the infotainment screen, is a family-specific feature neither competitor offers. Honda Sensing is comprehensive and well-calibrated, and the Pilot's standard headlight quality across the range is a genuine advantage.
Covering the Grand Highlander, Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 includes pre-collision braking, lane tracing, adaptive cruise, and road sign recognition as standard. ToyotaCare provides two years of complimentary maintenance, though that is an ownership benefit. Available features include blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert on higher trims, which means base-model buyers do not receive the same level of standard safety technology that Mazda and Honda include from the ground up.
Crashworthiness
Achieving Good ratings in every major IIHS crashworthiness category, the CX-90 was the only vehicle in this comparison to earn the Top Safety Pick+ designation for 2026. In the small overlap front test, the updated moderate overlap front test, and the side impact test, the CX-90 scored the highest possible marks. Cabin intrusion was minimal. Structural integrity was maintained across every impact scenario. Dummy measurements showed well-managed forces on the head, neck, chest, and lower extremities for both front and rear occupants. Consumer Reports had already named Mazda its first-ever Safest New-Car Brand earlier in the year, and the CX-90's IIHS performance reinforced that designation with hard data.
Both the Pilot and the Grand Highlander family struggled in the updated moderate overlap front test, which places greater emphasis on rear-passenger protection than previous iterations. The Pilot earned an Acceptable rating in this test, which sounds passable until you realize that Acceptable is one step below Good and is not sufficient for either IIHS safety award. Scoring worse, the Highlander family received a Marginal rating, the second-lowest designation, with elevated head and neck injury risks identified for rear-seat occupants. IIHS noted that rear passenger restraints and dummy kinematics were the primary areas of concern. For a vehicle whose third row is marketed specifically to families with children, a Marginal score in rear-occupant protection is a difficult finding to overlook.
Crash avoidance
All three vehicles earned Good ratings in pedestrian front crash prevention, demonstrating effective detection and automatic braking in scenarios involving pedestrians crossing into the vehicle's path. This category was a three-way tie, with each vehicle performing well under the IIHS evaluation criteria. Where the vehicles differ is in vehicle-to-vehicle crash-prevention testing. At the time of the IIHS evaluation, only the CX-90 had been tested for vehicle-to-vehicle crash avoidance, earning an Acceptable rating. Results for the Pilot and Grand Highlander in this specific category were either not yet published or not yet tested. Headlight evaluation singled out the Pilot as the only vehicle in this group to offer Good-rated headlights as standard across every trim, which matters for nighttime driving visibility and is a factor in the IIHS award calculation.
What the moderate overlap test actually measures
Understanding why this test separated the three vehicles requires knowing what it evaluates. The updated moderate overlap front test simulates a collision where roughly 40% of the vehicle's front end strikes a barrier at 40 mph. Under the 2026 criteria, IIHS measures not only driver injury metrics but also rear-passenger protection, including seatbelt performance, head restraint effectiveness, and structural integrity of the B-pillar and rear passenger compartment. Vehicles designed before these stricter criteria were introduced, or vehicles that did not prioritize rear-occupant engineering to the same degree, score lower. The CX-90's architecture, designed on Mazda's latest platform with multi-load-path energy management, handled the updated test requirements. The Pilot and Highlander family, both on slightly older platforms, did not.
The bottom line
For families choosing between these three vehicles on safety, the CX-90 is the clear winner. Perfect crashworthiness scores, a Top Safety Pick+ designation, standard AWD, and standard i-Activsense safety technology across every trim make it the most comprehensively safe three-row crossover in this comparison.
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This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 9:05 PM.