Safety is very important but in many ways relative. People will tell you a bigger vehicle is safer. This is partially true. A bigger and heavier vehicle obviously has more mass, and in theory, more of that is strong structural reinforcements. Sadly, even big cars can be unsafe, they can roll over, and may be much more dangerous to other vehicles. At the end of the day safety is basically a way of managing forces. An accident is just two things colliding, whether its two cars, or, a car and something else. If a car weighs more, or is traveling very fast, it is carrying more force (kinetic energy). All this energy has to go somewhere in an accident. A really stiff strong car may prevent a door from crushing you, but it also may not absorb any energy, thereby hurting you in other ways. Back to the original question. The CR-V is a smaller vehicle than the Pilot, therefore it weighs less. It has a smaller engine (better gas mileage). The new CR-V is recently redesigned, and therefore may have newer features. Some of these may be in the form of crumple zones or other safety measures. The Pilot is a bigger vehicle, and has a bigger engine. Also, airbags do not weigh very much, so having or not having them is not a huge weight savings. Both vehicles are very well rated for safety. Obviously, if you can afford the extra airbags, then you maybe should get them. But you may not need the extra horsepower or size that the Pilot gives over the CR-V. Both are very nice vehicles, and both are designed using a car body design, basically, the body is the load bearing structure, where as a F-150, and several other TRUCKS use a body on frame. Body on frame is considered slightly more rugged, but there is a significant sacrifice is ride quality and handling for body on frame. I hope this helps.