Anicet Mbida 6:53 a.m., January 25, 2023
Anicet Mbida delivers to us every morning what is best in terms of innovation.
This Wednesday, he is interested in an invention in the field of road safety.
This is a windshield that automatically blocks out the strongest lights.
The innovation of the day could avoid blinding motorists at night. This is a windshield that automatically blocks out the strongest lights.
Between those who forget their full headlights, those who do it on purpose and who turn them on when they meet you.
Not only is it annoying, but it's also dangerous.
There are also 4x4s and SUVs which have much taller headlights, new laser headlights which are ultra-bright… In short, a solution was urgently needed.
Well, General Motors is working on a new type of windshield that will analyze the intensity of the headlights of passing cars with a camera.
And if this intensity exceeds a certain level, it will attenuate it… But only where it bothers the driver.
Where pass the full headlights of the evil one who arrives in the opposite direction.
Is it the same principle as for interior mirrors (those that tint automatically)?
Yes.
This is called electro-chrome glass.
A glass that can darken on demand thanks to an electric current.
Except that there, it does not act on the entire windshield, but only where it is necessary.
This avoids lowering the brightness over the entire window and therefore degrading vision.
Which would be far from ideal in the middle of the night.
Another advantage of this technology: it can draw any shape on the windshield.
It can therefore be used as a head-up display and signal dangers directly in the field of vision.
Better: you can display the GPS information, directly on the windshield, showing for example precisely, the exit of the roundabout that you have to take.
This will avoid taking your eyes off the road.
Could it also work in daylight?
So as not to be dazzled by the sun, for example…
Yes.
The objective is really to be able to filter all types of light as soon as their intensity exceeds a certain threshold, as soon as they become blinding.
This could bring both more safety and more comfort.
Unfortunately, the option may be expensive.
Worse: if the smallest pebble makes a small chip on the windshield, it will be like a screen, everything will have to be changed… Safety and comfort will cost more and more.