Corning Brings Gorilla Glass To The Automotive Industry (digitaltrends.com)

At CES 2017, Corning has unveiled a concept car covered in Gorilla Glass. The car is augmented with the same Gorilla Glass that has protected smartphones for years, making the vehicle significantly more durable than a car wearing normal glass. Digital Trends reports: Corning's concept features hybrid Gorilla Glass on the windshield, sunroof, rear window, side windows, and the dashboard, which adds up to noticeable weight savings all around. Corning says Gorilla Glass is 30 percent lighter than the soda lime glass featured on most production vehicles, which not only improves fuel economy, it moves the center of gravity lower in the car to improve handling. In addition to the physical advantages, Gorilla Glass is also clearer than normal glass, which allows for more vibrant head-up displays, connected surfaces, and entire dashboards that function as touchscreens. That's not all though, because on the rear window, Corning slipped an electronically controlled opacity film between the layers of glass. With the push of a button, the window went from crystal clear to a dark tint. That'll surely come in hand if you feel the sudden need for privacy. "By bringing Corning Gorilla Glass to the automotive industry, Corning is delivering lighter, tougher, and more optically advantaged solutions, enabling improved fuel efficiency, and a safer, more enhanced user experience for both drivers and passengers," said Marty Curran, executive vice president at Corning. "Corning's leading position in mobile device cover glass has provided an excellent launch pad for glass solutions enabling smartphone like connectivity in cars. We are excited to be demonstrating all of these new technologies and opportunities in a custom-built connected car, shown for the first time at CES."

Comments

Re:Now we can all look through cracked windscreens

[drinkypoo]

Sigh. I don't want to sound like the cock that I am, but here I am to explain why you can't have a plastic windshield. Here are just some of the many reasons.

Reason 1: It gets scratched easily. This is the only reason you need; plastic windshields are incompatible with windshield wipers. This is not a problem in racing because you can just replace them.

Reason 2: If it breaks, it breaks into big sharp pieces that can impale people.

Reason 3: In a fire, plastic is basically frozen gasoline. Even if it doesn't catch on fire, you are sad when it melts, falls into the cabin, and forms itself to your face.

Reason 4: In a crash, the windshield has to transmit a shocking amount of force. Up to 40% of the energy of a front end collision is transferred through the windshield. After some of that energy is transferred into the roof, which deforms, the rest of it is dissipated by the breaking windshield.

The only concern here is whether gorilla glass will break into enough pieces when it breaks (like safety glass) because it absolutely meets all the other requirements.