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

This is not the right thing to do either, but if you have windshield coverage on your insurance policy, make them pay for it They sure take enough money from us every month

 

lol your definition of "right" is much different than mine. Aftermarket Windshields aren't expensive. No need to violate my ethics or commit insurance fraud.

 

Haha, I said "not the right thing" but everyone has different ethics or budget. If budget was tight, and the windshield is a safety issue then "do what you got to do"

I'm really curious on this issue and might take some video from different height when my wife is driving. Did any of you with this issue try driving another same year Prius yet? I have a 2012 and a 2013 and will experiment on both. The science of light traveling through windshields has turned out to be a really interesting read.

 

I'll try to borrow my friend's on-board camera. I never had good luck with picture quality through the windshield at night. We usually stick with external camera mounts on the track. I can't imagine using a home camera without a stabilizing packet. I'm guessing the on-board camera will not work as well, because I need to vary the positioning of the camera to the driver's POV. I need to research some more before I make a fool out of myself. Maybe if I find a busy parking lot at night, or maybe mount the camera on my race helmet. Hmmm.... in the name of science.

 

I'm no expert with a video camera, but I can assume picture quality with the same camera on another car will come back with similar results. There are many different types of lights bouncing around at night + any windshield + camera lenses. The camera no matter the quality will have a very hard time choosing which light source to focus on. Add that to vibrations that constantly work against the focus. I am not trying to say that windshield did not have the problem, I am only saying it is very hard to use a home quality camera (or a professional one) and use it as scientific evidence to prove there is a problem. I'm looking up professional photography sites and it looks like the experiment will be impossible to do in the real world. A lab or shop environment will be needed. Both affected and normal windshield has to be tested under the same controlled environment.

 

I'm perfectly happy to be "wrong" about this. If it is a major problem with the entire windshield manufacturing process? Then I would expect to hear the complaints in this area increase. And Toyota needs to be aware and needs to fix it, for owners today, and for those future owners.

But I would say, I have no way of quantifying 80-90% of the cars you've seen or heard about.

I would be interested in seeing your "Google Doc". Any link?

I would also say, 30-40 vehicles listed and 4 saying they don't have the issue at all, means 26-36 people saying the DO have the problem. Against the backdrop of all Prius produced, in any recent time frame, that could still be called a relatively rare and intermittent problem.

However, I also do believe the best thing to do is keep getting the message out, that this COULD be a problem.

1 windshield exhibiting this flaw, is 1 windshield too many.