Does windshield have UV protection?

Sense or $$$$ would be my first guess. Know anything about eye glasses with that special UV protective coating? In my experience that coating make lens last about 1/3 as long as lens without the coating and when they become hard to see out of they look like lens that have been through a sandblaster. Just guessin.

Everyone that needs glasses no matter what age, needs excellent eye care insurance or else $$$$ !

 

OK where is the windshields UV protection? And where did you read about it? I'd like to learn more about it too.

 

I wear "photo gray" glasses that darken when exposed to UV energy. They do not darken when I drive my Prius as UV doesn't get through the windshield.

JeffD

 

Windshield blocks 99% of UV, and front side windows block 90% or 99% depending on trim level. LE/SE/XLE/XSE block 90%(because they're single layer tempered glass with a UV coating) and LTD/XSE+ block 99%(because they're laminated glass like the windshield with a UV-blocking plastic layer).

 

Glass itself is a good UV blocker. IIRC, it blocks most of the A and some of the B before the addition of additional UV filters.

 

Windshield gets 99% protection from the treated plastic layer in the middle of the laminated sandwich. The front side windows get 90% protection from a coating on the inner surface, plus some UV absorbing materials in the glass itself.

Here's a Toyota press release from 15 years ago when they introduced the new side windows:
New Toyota Glass Technology Cuts UV By 99% - Toyota Media Site

 

Or it is simply marketing to hype the 10% more filtering over the old side window glass.

 

i wonder why the sides are only 90%. cost or technical issue?

 

Both. The ability to go to 99% comes from the lamination layer. The 90% on the sides is just an applied coating to the glass. In order to get to 99% on the sides, they'd have to go with laminated glass instead of tempered(which they do on the LTD and XSE+). They can't go laminated all the way around because that can be a safety hazard if the car goes underwater or if emergency responders need to get the occupants out quickly.

 

Thanks for the link @Hammersmith . For me, sometimes, the older the release the better I like it

@daisy555 , sorry to be a pest by not being a Gen 5 owner and posting anyways. It now makes more sense to me that someone might have mentioned that the front side glass is marked as UV glass and the windscreen is not.
I've been following the NA EUVL tech and it's more than a little hard to follow, especially the UV part of it. Though that has nothing to do with what you asked about either.

 

if you googles sun screen in the car, they recommend it. but the studies seem to be older, and idk what th uv glass protection was at the time. they don't get into it in any articles i found.

 

Perhaps because its kinda standard*? Side windows slightly less
Having people (still) getting skin cancer from driving a lot is really not good for marketing though

* Apparently there are much stricter UV regulations for cars in the EU (and Japan even more) but not in the states.