Popular Mechanics was recently given a chance to tour Volkswagen's R&D center and discovered a few surprising new bit bits of technology. One of them is so bitchin' that we had to share. It's an electronic sun visor. Similar to those auto-dimming rear-view mirrors or opaquing sunroofs seen on Maybachs and the like, this is a system embedded in the windshield glass that tints only a portion of the window exactly where it's needed. It's described as an electronic anti-glare system and uses an "electronic matrix" that is controlled by a computer. Ok, sure.
The way it works is that a "sun status sensor" and an eye-position sensor feed info to the computer. The computer then figures out where the sunlight is worst for the driver's eyes. It then produces a dark "spot" in the glass to block the sun. The spot will even move when you turn. So far you need special glass to make it work, but wow, what an improvement and very slick. Although this one appears to be just at the top edge of the windshield, we can see it being used across the whole expanse eventually, which would be especially helpful at dawn or dusk when the sun is too low to be effectively blocked by traditionally placed visors. Although, one has to wonder how much this "dark spot" obscures the driver's vision, but aside from that concern, we say VW needs to get this in production on a Bentley like yesterday.
Click over to Popular Mechanics to see what else they discovered while at VW.
[Source: Popular Mechanics]
The way it works is that a "sun status sensor" and an eye-position sensor feed info to the computer. The computer then figures out where the sunlight is worst for the driver's eyes. It then produces a dark "spot" in the glass to block the sun. The spot will even move when you turn. So far you need special glass to make it work, but wow, what an improvement and very slick. Although this one appears to be just at the top edge of the windshield, we can see it being used across the whole expanse eventually, which would be especially helpful at dawn or dusk when the sun is too low to be effectively blocked by traditionally placed visors. Although, one has to wonder how much this "dark spot" obscures the driver's vision, but aside from that concern, we say VW needs to get this in production on a Bentley like yesterday.
Click over to Popular Mechanics to see what else they discovered while at VW.
[Source: Popular Mechanics]
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