ABC 7 - Potential safety hazard in popular car...

Some people may complain that the Lamborghinis have the same problem, given the rakishness of the windshield.

Choose a different car, people, if you can't stand the car. It isn't a defect but your particular eyesight isn't compatible with it.

Some people get seizures or migraines from flourescent lights. The answer isn't declaring flourescent lights defective - since they are not. The answer is for those affected persons to avoid going to rooms with flourescent lights.

 

Newbie, here. I'll weigh in on this. I have prisms in both eyes of my Rx eyewear. I have not had a problem with my '11 PIII, purchased 5 months ago. I was frankly relieved when I test-drove and then purchased that I don't have an issue, as the extremely raked Prius windshield was a concern to me, for this reason: my father has had a couple of Chrysler Sebring convertibles. I literally can not drive his car for more than a few minutes because there is some interference between the (similarly) steeply raked windshield and my particular prescription. It puts a real strain on my eyes, so that when I'm a passenger I avoid looking through the windshield. In fact, I've noted the poor optical quality (wavy and uneven) of the Chrysler windshield.

Again, I was relieved that I did not have this issue with my Prius. I will look for it tonight, though, just out of curiosity.

 

I had a similar issue with a 2012 Chevy Impala rental car. The windshield has such a low-slope, the optical quality was really bad and seemed to distort the view.

 

The optics of the windshield would be affected by whether your eyes are high or low, left or right. For someone who experiences a problem, I'd ask whether moving your head to a different place affects the view. I'm not suggesting people can drive slouched over or sitting on boosters; just contemplating why some people might see a problem and others are fine.

 

i'm 6'2 and my wife is 5'2. She couldn't see an issue, so I dropped down to her height and the problem is less noticeable 6 inches lower down, but it's still noticeable. I think some people just don't see it for some reason. My wife watched the video and said she doesn't see that problem at all, and we're driving the same car.

 

What a ridiculously callous reply. BTW, did you look at the thread on this subject and see the pictures and videos that clearly show the problem? Explain to me how the cameras are able to show the issue if it's our eyesight that's in question?

The problem, as phvdriv3r stated, is that we didn't notice the problem when we bought the car in the daytime. By the time we discovered the issue and took the time to work with a Toyota rep we lost the ability to return the car without a huge financial hit.

It IS a defect even if YOU don't have it.

 

This is definitely noticeable in my 2012. From the lack of help I've gotten from my dealership on other issues, I'm a bit worried that they won't forward the comlaint to Toyota. Any tips about this?

 

If you're worried, call Toyota at Support | Toyota.com and make sure they log a complaint.

If you truly believe it's a legitimate safety defect, you should file a complaint at Home | Safercar -- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as well.

 

Do other people notice it when you invite them into your car to check out the issue (assuming they are the same height, etc.)?

 

I'm rather surprised that the basic physics of the situation is not getting any discussion. A windshield has an inner layer of PVB plastic and two outer layers of high impact resistant glass. To prevent multiple refractions, the index of refraction of these materials must be matched exactly. If the material has any imperfections in lamination, then double that effect. If there is a mismatch, the extremely slanted angle of the Prius will make this effect vastly more noticeable. At night it would be the worse since even weak double or triple reflections show up easily on a dark background.

This screams of a QA failure in windshield manufacturing.....but don't expect any statements from huge corporations of any nationality till they have completely figured out what they are going to do. Figuring out the problem cause does not take long. Figuring out how to handle it takes a very long time. In the meantime the companies will not say ANYTHING. One thing we can do here on Prius Chat is compare all the markings on the windows at issue and see if we can determine something in the meantime.

 

it's mentioned by this lawyer:

2011 to 2013 Prius Windshields Triple Light Sources :: California Lemon Law Lawyer Blog

but, why 2010 is not affected?

 

I think this is pretty simple.
If this problem exists on 4 Prius, 8 Prius, 12 Prius or 100's or 100,000 Prius then Toyota should be made aware and they need to fix it. Fix it on the Prius inwhich this is happening, and fix it on the supplier level, because that type of refraction shouldn't be happening with the windshield.

I'd assume it's a pretty isolated or rare instance because the total number of complaints seem pretty low. BUT that doesn't mean it isn't happening for those people and that the problem shouldn't be addressed and fixed, for those driving the vehicles in question and at a supplier level.

My only question would be have those with this complaint had any special additional coating added to their windshield? I know when I bought my Honda Fit the dealer tried to sell me on a "Diamond Coat" windshield protective coating.

I didn't buy it. I also know that when I use Rain-X, if I put on too much, or don't buff/wipe it down good enough, when I first go out at night I can get a lot of light refraction. Very similar to what was seen on the video. I usually just ignore it, it wears off in a couple of days or a single rain storm. But I am motivated to make sure I buff the Rain-X as clearly as possible. If I'm lazy, I usually have a nightime light show.

But in anycase, this seems like it would be a relatively simple problem to fix at the dealership level, and simply a matter of tracking down what is happening on a supplier level.

I'm of course making the assumption (always dangerous) that this is a relatively isolated and few in numbers problem. I make this assumption because Prius Chat isn't filled with huge numbers of my windshield is a prism threads.

 

Don't use lawyers to explain physics. They may be right, they may be wrong, but in all cases they are going to use whatever explanation that puts money in their pockets. In the physics of optics, it is how all the materials interact that matter, so beware of someone pinning the problem on just one thing. A change of glass can make an established coating work quite differently.

Go back to the video showing three images of the stoplight. There are essentially three images. The brightest image is the direct pass light. The second images are internal reflections. Notice that both secondary images are above and below the main image. They also have the same intensity. This indicates the internal reflections are very much the issue, so some significant change in the index of refraction inside the window has to be involved.

 

It's a good post, but I have to take issue with the highlighted statement. If this is due to manufacturing change, then how can the dealer fix it? If the replacement windshields have the same issue, how do they solve that? The real core discussion is the basis for a recall. That is what the NTSB should figure out. That needs to be decided yes or no. While it would be best if Toyota could isolate the issue and recall, they may be waiting on external authorities to decide. If there is a recall, then the dealers know exactly what to do. If not, the only thing the dealer has available is words.

 

Cwerdna in post 31 gave the perfect course of action. Official reports, made by registered owners, submitted with any supporting pictures or documentation must be addressed. Our government is often slow and inefficient, but on occasion they do the job right.