Just an idle thought: what would it take to make car windshields like transition

[niyad]

lenses? I thought about this the other day hen talking to a friend who was apparently removing tint film from her car. She said the tint was too dark at night, making it hard to see.

I would love something like that, but I suspect it would not be dark enough in daylight for me.

[hlthe2b]

1. It could certainly be done, but would be a lot more costly--especially in areas with hail or

construction "fly-up" leading to a lot of windshield replacements.

But it sounds like a good idea to me.

[niyad]

10. There is that. We get some really nasty hailstorms. And lots of construction.

[SheltieLover]

2. Sounds great to me!

[dweller]

3. Why not prescription lens

Hey here comes Grandpa … you can tell by the 2 basketball size eyeballs 👀
in the windshield
😳


✌🏻

[niyad]

6. I thought about that, too.

[dweller]

13. And no one could drive the car

but you
🤔


✌🏻

[ret5hd]

23. I think you have conflated the terms...

“could” and “should”.

[dweller]

24. Okay

https://m.

✌🏻

[Hugh_Lebowski]

4. I think it would drive you batty because the sun comes at all different angles on your cars windows

You'd end up with some windows really dark, and others really light, and then you take a 90 degree turn and suddenly the levels are all screwed up vs how the windows adjusted previously, and it would take some time for them to correct themselves.

Of if you park under a tree, you could end up with annoying splotches of light/dark all over your windshield.

I think it's doable, but it would take quite a sophisticated system that's built into the car and that can change opacity levels in a really smart, and fast, sort of way. Would probably need to leverage GPS and time of day and all that.

ANd if it breaks somehow it'll cost you 2000 to fix it minimum

[niyad]

11. All true. I was thinking primarily of the windshield.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Think about what it costs for those two inch transition lenses and guess what...

a windshield would cost.

[elleng]

12. That's due to patents, I think.

Remember that 'transition' was inexpensive, BEFORE whomever patented the process/mechanism?

[TreasonousBastard]

20. Most of the patents go back to the thirties, but newer stuff could...

be patented recently.

My costing info isn't from Lenscrafters, but from Zenni, a Chinese firm that sells direct.

They have several types of photochromatic lenses at various price levels. Some are pretty high.

[drmeow]

17. Those two inch transitional lenses

are super expensive because 1) the required precision of the prescription grinding and 2) 25% of the global and 30% of the US eyeglass industry is controlled by one company.

"Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes and retails its eyewear brands, including LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Apex by Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, Target Optical, Eyemed vision care plan, and Glasses.com. Its best known brands are Costa, Ray-Ban, Persol, Oliver Peoples and Oakley.

Luxottica also makes sunglasses and prescription frames for designer brands such as Chanel, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Michael Kors, Coach, Miu Miu and Tory Burch.[6][7][8][5]

In January 2017, Luxottica announced a merger with Essilor.[9] The combined entity would command more than one quarter of global value sales of eyewear.[10][5] In March 2018, the European Commission unconditionally approved the merger of Essilor and Luxottica.[11] On 1 October 2018, the new holding company EssilorLuxottica was born, resulting in combined market capitalization of approximately $70 billion.[12]

Luxottica also owns EyeMed Vision Care, a managed vision care organization in the United States.[40] As of 2014, it is the second largest vision benefits company in the United States.[41][42][43]

The company has been criticized for the high price of its brand-name glasses, such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, and several others. A 2012 60 Minutes segment focused on whether the company's extensive holdings in the industry were used to keep prices high. Luxottica owns not only a large portfolio of brands (over a dozen[44]) such as Ray-Ban and Oakley but also retailers such as Sunglass Hut and Oliver Peoples, the optical departments at Target and Sears, as well as key eye insurance groups including the second largest glasses insurance firm in the US. It has been accused of operating a complete monopoly on the optical industry and overcharging for its products; for example, temporarily dropping then-competitor Oakley from its frame design list, then, when the company stock crashed, purchasing the company, then increasing the prices of its Ray-Ban sunglasses. In addition, it has been argued that, by owning the vision insurance company EyeMed, it also controls part of the buyers' market as well.[42]"

[niyad]

19. Thank you for this eye-opening information.

[TreasonousBastard]

21. This is true, but it's easy to find that 70% not controlled by them.

[drmeow]

25. And the transition lenses

are probably cheaper at those 70%

[TreasonousBastard]

26. They are.

[drmeow]

27. Unfortunately

my insurance is through that %$%$ monopoly company and reimbursement from them is a PITA. Still bought my glasses at Costco cause f**k them

[Goonch]

7. CoolVu Automotive Window Tinting

https://emeraldcitywindowtinting.com/coolvu-transitional-window-films/#:~:text=What%20are%20Transitional%20Window%20Films,heat%20coming%20through%20your%20windows.

[niyad]

15. Wow!!!! Thank you for this valuable information. Putting this in my contacts.

[TreasonousBastard]

22. I would be careful here. Photochromatic lenses and films are...

temperature dependant-- if they get too hot they won't darken. That's not big deal with eyeglasses, but could be real problem with windshields. Maybe these guys solved the problem. Or maybe not.

The UN building in NYC originally had photochromatic windows, but didn't use it in a renovation.

[malaise]

8. What a great idea

Rec

[localroger]

14. There are LCD based demo systems

They are expensive but they let you select any tint from none to nearly black arbitrarily. There are also proposals to use those for residential and business windows for passive environmental control.

[niyad]

16. Thank you. Will check them out.

[Srkdqltr]

18. Not everyone needs the same level of tint. Changing light levels would be difficult

To compensate for.