My fit got broken into. They only stole my tomtom, but meh. Anyway it got me thinking why do cars still use glass windows and not plastic ones? Does anyone know? Does plastic whiten under UV rays or something? Or is plastic actually less durable for theft (i.e. it can dissolve under strong solvents)

 

Because if your head hits the window during a collision, the window breaks, and not your head.
But if you have tint on your window the glass, it won't shatter, and your head will become a pancake.

 

Let's take this scenario: your vehicle gets hit and flips. Engine catches fine. You can't open your doors because the impact of the collision jammed them. If you have plastic windows, how do you get out?

Or this scenario: Your car falls in the water and is sinking. The impact of whatever collision that knocked you in the water knocks you out cold. If you have plastic windows, how are your rescuers going to get you out? (Assuming they (probably) don't want to wait till the car is almost completely submerged)

Even if the glass is tinted, it will still shatter. The only difference will be that the tint on the tinted glass will hold all the small glass shards.

You're head won't flatten like a pancake if it hits tinted windows.

 

well sheesh, your head won't become a pancake, and the window won't shatter, but it will still crack and give a little.

 

Untinted window:




Tinted window:

 

lets not forget that glass is much more resistant to scratching than plastic

 

Yep, I used to work in the shop next to an airplane repair shop, and they often replaced what looked like good windows in small planes. I asked about it one day and I was told that pilots that washed their planes often had to replace the windows more often due to scratching. This would cause sun glare in refraction.

 

Yeah, can you imagine people with yellowed out windows? Not good.

 

Well, I hate to burst your bubble.........
I work for a Forensic Identification Unit. My job includes photographing people who have had their heads turned to pancakes. And yes, the glass shatters and gives a little but most of the time its pancake head. Or death from a decelerative brain injury.
That BMW has had the window cut or hit many times from the outside. Which has nothing to do with a persons head striking it from the inside.
I go to 10-20 fatals a year. At least 4 of these will be tint related.
The province I live in has banned front window tinting. Most western provinces are also the same, I don't know about the east though.
I would never tint my front windows. You may be safer in a car with side airbags though.

 

also notice how when the glass on the side windows is broken it shatters into a millions little bitty pieces? that keeps huge pieces of glass from slicing your throat or something during a wreck. in december a drunk crossed the yellow line and she clipped my mirror sending it into my side window. it shattered into a million peices before spraying my face. i didnt have one scratch on me cause of it. sure im still trying to clean the glass out of my car. i see new pieces almost daily, and its still inside my door.

 

I'm pretty sure that in most states it's illegal to tint the front window below the A1 line unless otherwise noted.

Those who tint the entire front window probably know it's illegal or they're ignorant/stupid. There's a reason it's illegal.

 

You could always buy a Wrangler.

 

Why does it make them stupid? Tint laws are only around due to officer safety basically.
If someone wants their front windshield tinted let them. Its specifically for privacy purposes only.

My friends 8th gen Si has all windows tinted. Front windshield is 35% too.
I myself find it pointless, but damn does it look good. Its too dark IMO for a front windshield though.

 

shouldnt have left your navigation all out in the open if you didnt want to get jacked.

 

Well, this post convinced me. It's tough to argue against experience like this no matter how good the theory sounds. I'm definitely not tinting my front windows. Since the fit has side airbags, I'm comfortable with tinting the sides and rear.

FWIW, auto glass shatters into small pieces because the glass is under stress induced putting a layer of plastic between two sheets of glass. Notice older auto glass gets small bubbles in it that can't be felt on either side of the glass. Those bubbles are in the plastic sheet.

There's a balance in designing auto glass - how do you protect from flying road debris but not turn someone's brain to pulp in a collision? I don't think it's possible to do both with any passive material. I suppose one could try to trigger something off the airbag system to automatically shatter the glass during an impact but I'd want such a system tested A LOT before putting it on my car.

Modern plastics are much more scratch resistant these days and I'm sure a clever materials engineer could design a plastic that shatters the same way auto glass does.

 

That's not true. When I got in my accident, my head broke the window and it cut me up uhhh pretty good lol.

 

Glass will stay clear for far longer than plastic, typically polycarbonate, because it is far less susceptible to solvents, cleaners, and scratching. Clear nylon is also a possibility for better chemical resistance but pretty costly.And it is just as easy to break plastics as glass. (you may notice the ad for bullet-proofing with polycarbonate over glass doesn't include hitting with a hammer or cinderblock).
Unfortunately, until "Star Treks" clear aluminum is developed, we're stuck with glass that pulverizes on impact instead of becominhg knive-blades for our safety.
Course we could use tv cameras or radar but somehow I doubt we'd like it.
An alarm system or camera survellience system still looks like the best security system. Or a garage.

 

You are a lucky man!
If that window was tinted, you may not be here talking to us.

As a side note, only the windshield is made from poly laminate and glass. And the windshield has been designed to absorb a head strike without killing you. But people do die from this time to time.
I have taken hundreds of pics of windshields with two bulges from the inside when the drive and passenger were not restrained. Pretty tough to argue in court. Tinting the front windshield would obviously reduce the protection.

 

Hm I always thought it was illegal to tint the front because it's hard for witnesses to see you if you commit an accident. I didn't know it was a safety reason.

 

When I first moved here (VA) I was driving on I64. The highway department had been trimming trees the night before, and a 4" dia. log (about the size you'd cut for a fireplace) was on the road in the right lane. I was driving in the left lane in my '99 Sonoma when a large truck in the right lane "shot" the log thru my windshield - like a missile, (the rear double wheels caught it an slung it at me) The way it impacted my windshield, it shot long shards into the cabin of my truck, one of which actually hit & scratched my eyeglasses. Good thing I wear glasses, or I would have had a damaged or lost eye!
I never knew that a windshield could do that!!