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Transportation Technology Hardware

Corning Brings Gorilla Glass To The Automotive Industry (digitaltrends.com) 114

Posted by BeauHD from the phones-to-cars dept.
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."
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Corning Brings Gorilla Glass To The Automotive Industry More

Corning Brings Gorilla Glass To The Automotive Industry

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  • break safety? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Is it still able to be broken easily in an accident to get out? I thought it was a feature that you can break it to escape.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pezpunk ( 205653 )

      uhm, have you ever tried doing that? tempered glass is hard as hell to shatter (unless you hit it on an edge, which wouldn't be accessable in a crashed car scenario, or unless you have a heavy, pointed object.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • Is it still able to be broken easily in an accident to get out?

      Yes. If you make it thin enough, you can make it as weak as you want. The point is that for any desired degree of strength, Gorilla Glass will be lighter.

    • No, the reason that it's tempered is so that, if it breaks in an accident, sharp shards don't cut you to death!

  • Now we can all look through cracked windscreens (Score:4, Informative)

    by caseih ( 160668 ) on Friday January 06, 2017 @08:36PM (#53621313)

    Seriously, though, car windscreens are highly regulated in the US for safety reasons. Nearly all alternatives to the present windscreen glasses are banned in the US from what I understand (they certainly ban polycarbonate). Maybe Dow-Corning can get them to change this a bit to allow testing of some good alternatives.

    • This will be a variant on the existing windscreens (Score:5, Informative)

      by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Friday January 06, 2017 @08:49PM (#53621379)
      The existing windscreens are a "sandwich" of glass and a soft plastic that keeps the glass in place when it shatters. A gorilla glass alternative would be replacing the glass layers but not the entire thing.

      Also when polycarbonate breaks it can have sharp edges so 100% polycarbonate in a windscreen is almost as bad an idea as 100% glass.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Polycarbonate is very soft and scratches easily making it suck for anything with wipers on it.
        Although if you used 10mm polycarbonate I seriously doubt you could ever break it.

    • PC is banned because at the thicknesses needed for automotive safety, it won't break safely when you need it to get clear of a burning car. It's why Soda Lime has been the only viable option thus far. But if GG is automotive safe and still allows you to break out, it's viable.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        It's not the "breakout" option, that's the real reason it's banned. It's because the vehicle windshield and other glass windows are a component of the energy absorption system in a crash. A glass that's too ridged will transfer it's energy in a crash which can cause serious injuries, one that's too soft will absorb too much will do the same. Both are bad scenario's in a serious crash, it's why what we have now works so well.

      • The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol

        Amarr is missspelled, dropping the extra i might allow you to fit the d dropped from the end. Otherwise, a very funny sig.

        • The plural of Amarr is Amarri, and the dropped 'D' is partially intentional. Matari vessels are collections of rust plates and duct tape after all, they don't hold together well.

          • I don't see anywhere online stating that Amarri is the plural of Amarr, and it would be inconsistent as Amarr is already a plural in many usages in the game.

    • 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.

      • I heard something about this somewhere months ago. If irc they were planning on only using gorilla glass for the outside layer of glass. They needed the interior layer to still be the standard soda glass to keep the glass from deforming under air pressure. So the way it fractures might not be as much of an issue as the glass which is likely to be exposed to the passengers in an accident is the same as ever.

    • You're casually throwing around this term "banned," but that might not actually be true. Especially since it is just coming from your "understanding," which is code for you don't know.

      Not only are alternatives legal, in most States you can even duct tape a piece of home window glass to the top of the hood and be street legal!

      From a manufacturing perspective there are very very few rules. Don't just wave your hands and presume that because you heard there are lots of safety rules, they must tell you exactly

  • In a car that's not allowed. It will only attract more attention from the cops.

  • Not sure about the rest, but... (Score:3)

    by msauve ( 701917 ) on Friday January 06, 2017 @08:41PM (#53621343)
    if a GG windshield means fewer "sand pits" (which I find annoying when driving into the sun) over the years, I'm in.

    • if a GG windshield means fewer "sand pits" (which I find annoying when driving into the sun) over the years, I'm in.

      My three year old car has nearly a dozen nicks and chips just on the hood, front spoiler, and leading edge of the roof panel. I would love to see a GG-like film that can be used to coat every painted/moulded surface on the vehicle. I am also tired of the chips taken out of my door by idiots in parking lots who can't be courteous enough to be careful when opening their doors to or to remind their kids to be careful. I can't believe that in 2016 we don't have automotive paints or other films that can stand

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by msauve ( 701917 )
        Get a wrap [3m.com], or paint protection film [3m.com].


        (disclaimer: I do own a bit of 3M stock, but it's because they make a lot of useful and popular stuff like the above)

        • Get a wrap [3m.com], or paint protection film [3m.com].

          (disclaimer: I do own a bit of 3M stock, but it's because they make a lot of useful and popular stuff like the above)

          Umm...I came here looking to crack a joke about needing a screen protector for your car, and find this.

          It is truly a strange world we live in...and now I find myself thinking about putting these things on my pretty new Murano... :S

    • Re:Not sure about the rest, but... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Friday January 06, 2017 @11:22PM (#53621961)
      Your front windshield is already tempered [youtube.com]. This provides much more resistance to chipping and breaking than the glass formulation. Basically, the glass is cooled in a way that the exterior is always in compression (glass is really, really strong in compression). This means when a rock hits your windshield, the force it imparts has to first overcome the glass' innate compression, before it can start to create tensile stresses and have a chance to chip or shatter the glass.

      Smarter Every Day has a pretty good explanation of how tempering strengthens the glass [youtu.be]. In the case of Price Rupert's drops, there's a weak point in the tail, but the exterior is strong enough to shatter lead bullets [youtu.be]. For a plate windshield glass, the weak points are all internal and it's most vulnerable to impacts inwards from the edges.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by msauve ( 701917 )
        Don't know much about Gorilla Glass, do you? It's a step beyond ordinary tempered soda-lime glass. One of its claimed characteristics is better scratch resistance. I haven't seen claims about resistance to pitting, but it's reasonable to believe it's better for that, too.

      • I watched the bullet video a few days ago and it's pretty entertaining stuff. I also saw a video where some guy put a small drop in a hydraulic press and it took about 20 tons of force to make it pop. The drop actually left relatively deep indentations in both the steel plate and cylinder used in the video.

  • lean against the car, 100% of the body spiderweb shatters.
  • Screen protectors for your windshield, rear & side windows... Hey, it worked for the crazy phone people sticking those things on GLASS, so why wouldn't the same thing work for automobiles? I've had smartphones since 2010, had 4 of them, never had a screen protector...never had one with a scratch!

    • Screen protectors for your windshield, rear & side windows... Hey, it worked for the crazy phone people sticking those things on GLASS, so why wouldn't the same thing work for automobiles?

      They actually have glass screen protectors now, made out of gorilla glass to protect your gorilla glass. The problem with large screen protectors is the virtual impossibility of installing them without trapping dust beneath them. It would make more sense just to retrofit a new windshield, which is a relatively simple job.

  • And the price is? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    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,"

    What about the cost?

  • Could one be trapped in an accident and you can't break the glass. Some windows now are pretty tough to break now, with this new glass I could see people possibly getting trapped if they can't get the doors open or break the windows to climb out. As far as having the ability to darken the rear window should be a non issue, lots of vehicles don't have windows in the rear. However, side windows would certainly be a no no.

    • Re:What about in a accident? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ledow ( 319597 ) on Friday January 06, 2017 @09:11PM (#53621503) Homepage

      Don't believe the hype, Gorilla Glass shatters like anything else. And a windscreen is a hard piece of glass to break, or it wouldn't be any use whatsoever. Stones flying at your face at 120+mph combined barely chip normal windscreen glass. You aren't going to punch your way out of the front screen, even if you're Arnie. Maybe the side windows, if you have the right tool and arm-swing enough to use it.

      The reality, as always, is that the chances of you being in a situation where you need to break the glass are VASTLY outweighed by the stuff that the glass being tough saves you from.

      Everybody might have their plan to cut seatbelts and smash glass after waiting for water pressure to equalise (RUBBISH! DON'T WAIT FOR IT TO SINK AT ALL!) to escape after driving off a bridge into a river, but it's a vanishingly rare scenario and most people in it won't be able to, or would even know, what to do anyway. For a start, your airbag will probably knock you unconscious before anything else.

      All Gorilla Glass does, though, it let you lose weight and retain the same strength. It still has to shatter, not splinter, and withstand the same design forces and no more. It just means it can be thinner/lighter and do the same job.

      • I agree it is hype. But I was under the impression "shatter, do not splinter" is old. And that present day windshields are two pieces of glass sandwiching a tough layer of plastic in the middle. Thus it shatters, but the pieces do not fly everywhere. They all get stuck to the plastic. Or plastic is old, and shatter is new?

        • I was under the impression "shatter, do not splinter" is old. And that present day windshields are two pieces of glass sandwiching a tough layer of plastic in the middle. Thus it shatters, but the pieces do not fly everywhere. They all get stuck to the plastic.

          Both things are true. They shatter into a zillion pieces of glass, most of which remain stuck to the plastic. This is still safer than turning into several long knives stuck to a sheet of plastic.

        • The front windshield is safety glass, glass layered with plastic so that the broken pieces hang in place.

          The side windows can be either of two types. They break into small pieces, but have no plastic so all the little pieces fall into the seat cracks, under the seat, wedge at the edge of the floormat, in the door pockets, in the cracks of the dash ... On some cars, a light tap on the edge, such as from using a coat-hanger type tool to try to unlock the door, will cause it to shatter this way. A year late

          • The side windows can be either of two types. They break into small pieces, but have no plastic

            Did you mean they can be either type? Because the side windows in luxury cars do commonly have a plastic film in them. It's how they achieve "double glazing" without actually having an airspace between two panes of glass.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Speaking from the unfortunate experience of having drowned my car in a flash flood.

        You're right... You won't be able to hold your breath long enough for the pressure to equalize. You won't be able to open the doors once the car goes in the water, but you can open the windows so long as they're above water, so do so immediately, and GTFO...

      • Making the glass shatter doesn't take that much force provided you have a proper tool for it. You want something with a fine point made of very hard steel. You can buy little spring loaded tools for this that look like a fat ball point pen. The front windscreen is a bad candidate for emergency egress because the glass even once shattered is held in place by that layer of plastic and is glued in place all around the edges. The side windows even if made of the same sandwich construction are only attached alon

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by rednip ( 186217 )
      A quick google will show dozens of videos of people trying to break glass out of car windows using hammers. It's clearly not as easy as you seem to think, nor is breakable glass considered to be a safety feature. Sure there may be a few edge cases where it might come in 'handy', but overall it's better to have stronger glass than weaker, not even by a little bit.

    • Re:What about in a accident? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Shados ( 741919 ) on Friday January 06, 2017 @11:44PM (#53622037)

      From what I've seen, all you need is ask a 16 years old girl to be really careful with the window because it's expensive. She'll break it within minutes.

      At least that seems to be the case of every other thing with gorilla glass. Should work here too.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pezpunk ( 205653 )

      breakability is not a safety feature.

  • What's the Cost? (Score:3)

    by jaa101 ( 627731 ) on Friday January 06, 2017 @09:47PM (#53621637)

    Corning isn't giving the pricing which means 99% of you can't afford it. I suspect it will be a high-end luxury car feature or option for many years until the price comes down to sane levels. Cars are way bigger than smart phones and tablets. Already some performance cars advertise thinner glass to save weight.

    • Corning isn't giving the pricing which means 99% of you can't afford it. I suspect it will be a high-end luxury car feature or option for many years until the price comes down to sane levels.

      And as such, they will probably get it wrong. My 1997 Audi A8 has double glazing all around. It's thinner in the windows which aren't windshields. ISTR it's something called Planilux, I could look it up if it mattered. This is relevant because the windows have separated in several places, you can see bubbles forming. It's around the edge where it doesn't matter so far, but I'm glad I have a fresher car lined up.

  • Automakers are already experimenting with reducing glass thickness (where they can) to reduce weight so they can improve fuel economy without having to do any real engineering work, the result is a noisier drive because the thinner windows do not block the noise from the vehicle's surroundings as well.

    • People should pay attention. Cars with too much noise insulation are a problem. Encourages 'head up ass' driving. Not as bad as thumping morons, but close. Disconnected.

  • Darn! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Required Snark ( 1702878 )
    When I read the headline, I thought that they were making the entire body of the car out of Gorilla Glass. That would be really cool.

  • "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."

    ...or not ;)

  • I don't really need a concept car, but would be happy if we could just replace the glass in my front windshield with Gorilla glass (using the same glass-plastic-glass design), so that I do not have to replace my windshield as often from rock dings that turn into cracks?

  • How does gorilla glass behave in a wreck in which the window is broken? For example current safety glass does not tend to shatter in shards big enough to cut your throat but the gooey center between the layers holds smaller pieces of glass that can act like a belt sander with big chunks of glass ripping your face off. Ideally safety glass would become granular and harmless when shattered.
  • if smartphone-related industries bring their innovations into the automotive industry, we should be scared about what Samsung could do...
    • We could only hope. There is still very little Android Auto integration in new vehicles. It's been what, 10 years now?

  • electric window ? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "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."

    In addition to darkening, can they should make the rear window able to flash "Keep Right Except to Pass" in bright yellow text. And maybe even "Use Your Turn Signal", or "That Stop Sign You Just Rolled Through Was Not Just A S

  • From the summary:

    That'll surely come in hand if you feel the sudden need for privacy.

    Ok, then.

  • FTS

    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.

    Dammit, I can't keep up with cleaning the fingerprints off of a 100 cm2 surface, what am I gonna do with a couple of square meters...?

  • A Gorilla on the windows, a Tiger in the tank and a Monkey behind the wheel, ready for the asphalt-jungle.

  • Corning Brings Gorilla Glass To The Automotive Industry

    Great. I wonder if they'd be interested in expanding to other industries, like food for example. I'm sure there'd be plenty of applications in the food industry for strong glass.

  • Great! Now I'll need to buy a screen protector for my windshield to protect it.

  • But when will they bring out Slow Glass?

  • We have emergency tools with hammers, cutters and sharp point to break the older tempered glass, Now how will one break this new Gorilla glass? Or will one need an explosive to break it?

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