Influence of Tinted Windshield Glass and its Orientation on Visual Performance of Driver During Night Time and its Effect on Road Safety

Visibility through windscreen along with front lighting system is one of the most important elements of road safety. Windscreen also provides the good visibility to driver to drive safely during night time. As per the rule windscreen visual light transmission should be minimum 70%. Windshields are made-up of tinted glass which produces light transmission varying from 70% to 95%. Windscreen installation is various from vehicle to vehicle, the visual light transmittance at different installation angle and its effect to the visibility are not fully understood. Vehicle headlamps and front fog lamps are evaluated for the illumination without consideration of driver's visibility with the combination of wind screen and its installation angle.

This paper describes the effect of different ranges of tinted wind shield glass on driver's visibility at various installation angle of windshield along with the headlamp illumination. It also describes how the headlamp performance will changes with tinted wind shield glass with different installation angle of windshield. It also describes possible changes in the requirement and measurement procedure for visual light transmission and headlamp test in the respective standards.