What Is Smart Glass And How Does It Play A Role In Your Vehicle?

The automobile industry continues to evolve in order to add better safety features to cars and SUVs. While you are on the road, you remain exposed to a variety of external elements and risks. Vehicles are designed to enhance your safety on the road and keep you protected during collisions and accidents. Among other safety components that a car or SUV is provided with, auto glasses are one of the most important. The front windshield glass, back auto glass and other glasses play a crucial role to keep the driver as well as the passengers safe. While you may think of the windshield glass as just another piece of standard glass, it is actually a special type of glass known as laminated glass. The role of the auto glass is to keep out external elements, facilitate the deployment of airbags and provide structural strength to the vehicular frame so that it doesn’t collapse during an accident.

At SIR Glass in Boise, Idaho, we often answer the questions of our customers in regard to auto glasses including auto glass installation, auto window repair and auto glass replacement. In this article, we will educate you on smart glass and what kind of role it plays in your car or SUV.

Also referred to as Intelligent Glass, Smart Glass is an advanced type of auto glass that performs multiple roles at once. The purpose of these glasses is to enhance driving experience and everyday living.

When smart glasses were first introduced, their use was limited to the construction industry. Building contractors often installed these glasses in the doors and windows of houses and apartments. Today, smart glass has also entered into the automotive industry, bringing additional features to cars. Flexible transparency and coloration are two key features of these auto glasses.

Today, you will find smart glasses installed in cars that fall under the premium or luxury category. High-end vehicles such as BMW, McLaren and Mercedes-Benz are good examples of premium cars that have these advanced auto glasses. But the use of smart glass will expand fast in the future. Vehicle manufacturers plan to add this type of glass as a standard component in most cars and SUVs. At the same time, you can expect the smart glass to perform many more functions than they do currently. Thanks to the new and advanced technologies, smart glasses will soon be an essential part of all makes and models of cars and SUVs.

The auto industry calls smart glass by various names including intelligent glass, switchable glass and light control glass. These glasses are aimed at making everyday driving more exciting and enjoyable.

The general automotive market awaits the arrival of smart glass with impatience. This is because of the smart features that smart glasses come along with. Whether it is safety, privacy or entertainment you look for, these new pieces of auto glasses are designed to do all of these at once.

Usually, drivers have to put sunshades across windshields while the car is parked. One can use these only when the vehicle is in the parking area. Otherwise, the sunshades have to be removed. This is not the case when you have smart glass installed in your vehicles. Intelligent or smart glasses come along with switchable SPD films. A tint material, PSD blocks 99% of light while also maintaining flexible transparency as per the needs of the driver. The transparency provided by the auto glass is adequate for safe driving on the road.

The smart technology used in smart glasses provides a couple of really important benefits for the driver. Driving in the sunlight can prove to be dangerous, particularly due to the sun’s blinding effect. Even when you wear sunglasses, the risk of the sun’s blinding glare does not go away completely.

That is exactly why smart glasses prove to be extremely useful. In a way, these new pieces of glasses have revolutionized the automotive industry. For more information on this, reach out to SIR Glass in Boise.

Car manufacturers collaborate with Research Frontiers to design smart glasses for cars, sedans and SUVs. The smart technology is a brainchild of the scientists at Research Frontiers. Manufacturers add a nano-technology-based film to automotive glass to create smart glass. At present, there are only a handful of vehicle manufacturers that design and produce smart glasses.

However, the situation is about to change fast. A lot of manufacturers are planning to start producing smart glasses for vehicles. Many companies have already reached out to Research Frontiers to produce smart glasses in large numbers in order to increase their availability. Many vehicle manufacturers are setting up new factories to design smart glasses for vehicles. So, you can expect to see this innovative technology added to all standard cars and SUVs. Countries like North America, Germany and Japan have made a great deal of progress already in this direction. Countries like India and China will jump onto the bandwagon soon.

Five models of Mercedes-Benz already have smart glass installed. With the use of such advanced technologies, the automotive industry looks quite futuristic globally. The big challenge for car manufacturers is to ensure correct functionality of smart glasses after an auto glass repair.

Smart glasses are not just standard pieces of glasses. The nano-technology used in these windshield glasses brings car owners a number of benefits. Here is a quick look at all the benefits the auto glass offers.

Flexible Transparency

With smart glasses installed in your vehicle, you will never have to look for those sunglasses to avoid the sun’s glare. The best thing about these auto glasses is that the transparency they provide is adjustable.

Smart glass doesn’t just block 99% of light, but it also allows the driver to adjust the transparency level as per exact need. Such features give the driver more control when driving in direct sunlight. If you are driving with kids in the backseat, smart glasses allow you to increase or decrease transparency level. This is where smart glasses differ from built-in sunshades. Though the latter offer protection from sunlight, they also obscure the driver’s vision of the road. With smart glasses, you can go fully transparent or remain opaque as per your specific needs.

Thermal Control

One of the main benefits of smart glass is thermal control. This means you do not have to worry about extreme heat or cold while driving anymore. The innovative auto glass will shade the windows in a way that you do not feel extreme temperature levels of the summer and the winter season.

The smart glass technology continues to evolve as well. If you want to darken the auto glasses, you can darken them separately. This means the technology allows you to darken some car window glasses while leaving others. You would want to do this when you are facing the sun’s glare only on one side of the vehicle. There are companies that manufacture such smart glasses. In short, you are going to fall in love with the kind of thermal control these glasses offer.

Use of Less Fuel

Smart glasses will help you save money on fuel. Cars and SUVs that have smart glasses are more fuel efficient than other vehicles. The property of smart glasses to block out heat eliminates the need to use air-conditioning on a regular basis. When you use the car AC less, the consumption of fuel goes down automatically, thereby helping you save money on fuel.

Safety

Drivers have to face various kinds of distractions while on the road. This creates risks for the driver and other passengers.

One of the main roles of smart glass is to enhance road safety for drivers. If you worry about distracted driving, smart glass technology will solve this problem. Using head-up displays (HUD), these auto windshield glasses display information in the driver’s area of vision. The current HUD technology is a lot more useful than the previous HUD, which was introduced a long time back.

Entertainment

Smart glass technology is not only useful, but it is quite exciting too. As more and more car manufacturers start to develop these innovative pieces of car window glasses, you will get to see more features in the future. Just imagine if you could just customize your smart glass to watch Netflix shows.

Advertising

You can expect to see marketing and advertising messages on your smart glasses as manufacturers add customization features. The ads may start to display as the driver turns on the tinting feature in the car. Not just ads, you can also see other types of content on your smart glass in the future.

Noise Reduction

Smart glasses are used in some industries already. These glasses have a beneficial feature to reduce noise level. This is exactly why airplanes use smart glasses in their windows. When an airplane flies, you cannot imagine the level of noise that it is surrounded with due to huge air pressure. When installed in vehicles, these advanced automotive glasses will reduce noise.

Hopefully, you have now understood what kind of highly useful features smart glasses will bring to your cars and SUVs. Like it has been mentioned above, smart glasses are for now available only in luxury cars. But soon, you will find these innovative pieces of glasses in the standard category of cars as well. By the time smart glasses or intelligent glasses are available in most cars and SUVs, you will see these glasses have become more feature-rich than they are now. If you have a question regarding any of these features, feel free to get in touch with one of our experts at SIR Glass, which operates in Boise, Nampa, Eagle, Meridian etc.

The whole purpose of manufacturing smart glasses is to provide drivers with an exciting and enjoyable driving experience in many ways. Installation of these innovative glasses in a standard car or SUV will provide a luxurious feel while bringing a number of benefits to the driver. The more smart glasses you have in your vehicle, the more exciting your driving experience will turn out to be.

Innovations in the field of automotive glasses will always benefit the driver as well as other passengers in a car. The more features companies add to smart glass, the more benefits drivers will get.

As more and more manufacturers gear up for collaborations to design smart glasses, the future of these auto glass looks very bright. Right from safety and privacy to fuel economy and entertainment, the smart glass technology has a huge potential to take the automotive industry by storm. However, these car window glass will still sustain damage due to various reasons. That is exactly what manufacturers are aiming for, in particular. They plan to transform the technology in a manner that an auto glass repair does not affect its precision.

It is for the vehicle owners to give smart glasses proper attention. If you spot any kind of damage on the glass, you should get it fixed immediately by a highly trained technician such as those from SIR Glass in the Greater Treasure Valley Area. To find out more about our auto windshield repair, car windshield replacement and mobile auto glass services, reach out to one of our experts.

Smart glass technology is transforming driving safety and experience. If you have a question about these innovative auto glasses or want to schedule an inspection of your damaged car window glass, head straight to SIR Glass that serves vehicle owners throughout the Greater Treasure Valley Area. Our company specializes in auto glass repair and auto windshield replacement for all makes and models of cars including premium as well as standard.

If you are too busy, you can also avail yourself of our mobile car window repair and mobile windscreen replacement at no extra charges. Give us a phone call to receive your free windshield replacement quote.