The rapid growth of smart glass in the automotive industry is set to continue. A recent report by NanoMarkets forecasts the market to climb to $2.1 billion by 2019, up from $1 billion in 2014. The report defines smart glass as any glass that is made “intelligent” by the addition of layers of smart materials or the embedding of sensors or other kinds of electronic functionality.
Factors driving the growth of smart glass are those central to the automotive industry: safety, comfort, fuel economy and style.
Applications and products leading the trend include self-dimming windows, smart privacy glass, smart mirrors, self-healing glass, self-cleaning windshields and electronics-embedded glass incorporating elements such as antennas and heaters.
The future of glass with embedded intelligence looks particularly bright. The rapid development of heads-up display systems could turn windshields into genuine transparent displays, while dashboard sensor-embedded touchscreens are proliferating across all vehicle models.