How to improve visibility on the road

Reduced driver disability significantly impairs reaction times and depth perception. A recently introduced ceramic kit to treat windshield could mitigate this situation.

When a driver’s vision is obstructed by weather, headlight glare, or vehicles blind spots, drivers are more likely to hit pedestrians, misjudge following distances, or exceed their stopping distances.

Visibility factors for drivers are primarily broken down into two categories : Environmental and Vehicle/Human.

Environmental & human factors

• Adverse Weather:  Heavy rain, snow, fog, severely compromises your driving visibility by blurring the windshield, creating headlight glare through backscatter, and reducing the contrast of objects.  It also creates road spray from other vehicles and road markings.  Windshield obstruction from worn wiper blades can severely distort what you see ahead.  
• Night time driving: Darkness limits peripheral vision, reduces depth perception, oncoming high beams and streetlights also create a blinding glare.
• Dirty Windshields & Mirrors: A thin visible film of dirt on a windshield can scatter up to 30% of oncoming light drastically increasing blinding glare at night. 
• Aging drivers: 60-year-old drivers may need double the light amount to see as clearly as a 30-year-old.

A new technology to help see clearer

Over the past few years ceramic glass treatment has been developed for the aviation industry.  Ceramic glass treatment is a protective coating that bonds to glass surfaces, creating a hydrophobic, durable layer that repels water, dirt, and other contaminants while enhancing clarity and longevity.

Ceramic glass treatment involves applying a nano-ceramic coating to glass surfaces, typically containing ingredients like silica dioxide, nano-quartz, or Titanium dioxide.  

These compounds are compressed at the molecular level, to form a semi-permanent, transparent layer that chemically bonds in the pores of the windshield glass, providing a smooth, hard surface that resists scratches, water spots and environmental damage, such as sun, road salt, bird droppings, and other contaminates.  This product is safe for tinted windows.

• Hydrophobic Properties: Water beads and slides off easily, improving visibility during rain storms, highway driving will be less stressful as the rainwater will slide of the windshield no need to have the wipers always operating, easier to remove ice, snow, and dirt, and reducing the need for frequent cleaning, it helps extend the life of wiper blades.

Many ceramic coatings offer long-lasting protection ranging from several months to over a year of protection depending on which product brand has been chosen.

Application of the product is different from one company to another; you must follow the instructions provided with the kit. These ceramic kits are sold through major auto-parts outlets. This could be a very interesting treatment to offer to your clients for whom safety on the road is a priority.