What Are Smart Glass Windows?

Smart glass windows use technologies such as electrochromic, thermochromic, or photochromic materials to change transparency levels. These adaptive features offer dynamic control over light and heat, making them an ideal choice for modern spaces.

Benefits of Smart Glass Technology

1. Energy Efficiency: Smart glass can block heat on sunny days, reducing the need for air conditioning.
2. Enhanced Privacy: Switch from transparent to opaque for instant privacy.
3. Improved Comfort: Reduce glare and UV exposure without sacrificing natural light.

Applications in Homes and Vehicles

• Homes: Replace traditional curtains or blinds with smart glass for sleek, automated light control.
• Vehicles: Minimize glare for drivers and passengers while maintaining a comfortable cabin temperature.

Smart glass windows represent the future of energy-efficient, adaptable design. Whether you’re upgrading your home or vehicle, this technology delivers comfort, convenience, and sustainability—all at the flip of a switch.

How AZ’s Extreme Heat Affects Glass

When exposed to extreme temperatures, glass can expand and contract, leading to stress and, ultimately, cracking. Arizona’s climate, with summer temperatures often exceeding 110°F, amplifies this risk. Car windshields, which experience additional strain from direct sunlight, are especially vulnerable.

Why Heat-Resistant Glass Matters

Heat-resistant glass, such as tempered or laminated glass, is specifically designed to endure temperature fluctuations. These materials undergo specialized treatments to improve their strength and resilience.

Key Benefits of Heat-Resistant Glass:

1. Improved Longevity: Withstand extreme conditions without cracking.
2. Energy Efficiency: Reflect heat to reduce indoor temperatures and lower energy costs.
3. Enhanced Safety: Breaks into less hazardous pieces when shattered.

Protecting Your Glass Investments

For vehicle owners, parking in shaded areas and applying UV protection films can prevent glass damage. Homeowners and businesses should consider upgrading to energy-efficient, heat-resistant windows to protect against Arizona’s relentless heat.

With the right materials and care, your glass can withstand the heat, keeping you cool and safe all year long. Contact AGD today to learn about heat-resistant glass options for your vehicle, home, or office.

What Is Acoustic Auto Glass?

Acoustic auto glass is a specialized type of laminated glass that features a noise-dampening layer, typically made of polyvinyl butyral (PVB). This layer acts as a sound barrier, absorbing and reducing the transmission of high-frequency noise into the cabin. Unlike traditional glass, acoustic versions are engineered to improve soundproofing without compromising strength or visibility.

How Does It Work?

The PVB interlayer in acoustic glass dampens vibrations that cause noise. It’s particularly effective at filtering out frequencies commonly associated with road, wind, and engine sounds. This creates a quieter interior environment, allowing passengers to enjoy music, conversation, or even silence during their drive.

Why Choose Acoustic Auto Glass?

1. Improved Comfort: Less noise means a more comfortable and relaxing ride.
2. Enhanced Safety: A quieter cabin helps drivers stay focused on the road.
3. Energy Efficiency: Some acoustic glass also improves thermal insulation, reducing the need for air conditioning or heating.

Investing in acoustic auto glass is about more than just noise reduction—it’s about upgrading your overall driving experience. Whether you’re commuting daily or embarking on road trips, this technology provides a peaceful ride, rain or shine. Contact AGD today to learn more about acoustic auto glass installation, maintenance, and repair.

Auto Glass Technology – What to Expect in 2025

1. Smart Glass Integration

The future of auto glass is smart glass—glass that can adjust its tint based on external lighting conditions or user preferences. This technology will allow drivers to reduce glare and maintain a comfortable temperature inside the vehicle without needing traditional window shades.

• What to expect: Look for smart glass that integrates with your vehicle’s onboard systems, giving you real-time control over the tint and UV protection.

2. Self-Repairing Glass

One of the most exciting advancements is self-repairing glass. With this technology, minor chips and cracks will be able to repair themselves automatically. Imagine no longer having to rush to the auto shop after getting a small chip!

• What to expect: Self-repairing glass uses special polymers that fill and harden cracks when exposed to sunlight or heat.

3. Augmented Reality (AR) Displays

2025 may also see the rise of augmented reality (AR) windshields. These windshields will display navigation information, alerts, and other data directly on the glass, eliminating the need to take your eyes off the road.

• What to expect: AR windshields could be the next step in enhancing driving safety by providing real-time information without distractions.

As technology evolves, auto glass will continue to play a crucial role in vehicle safety, comfort, and convenience. Keep an eye out for these exciting innovations coming soon to a vehicle near you. Contact us today to learn more about your car’s auto glass technology and how to properly care for and maintain it.

Many car owners drive around with damaged or dirty headlights and just assume that they have to live with it as is. Or, they may not even realize that their headlight quality has diminished. But, while drivers may not always be familiar with headlight restoration but there are many benefits to restoring your headlights their original working condition. Still not sure whether you actually need headlight restoration? Below, we explain the two primary reasons you need headlight restoration!

2 Reasons You Need Headlight Restoration

1. Headlight Restoration Improves Your Safety When Driving

• Your headlights are one of your most important safety features on your vehicle so it is important they work well and can provide enough light so that you can see your surroundings and so that others can see you. Severe weather conditions can happen anytime and when they do you want headlights that work well. If your headlights are cloudy or not producing enough light but restoration will provide you long-lasting results that will improve you and your passengers safety, as wells as the safety of others on the road.

2. Headlight Restoration Improves Your Car’s Appearance

• Professional restoration of your headlights will greatly improve the outer appearance of your car. Headlights get scratches and yellow overtime, diminishing their look. But restoration can make your headlights look new again!

Signs that headlights need to be replaced

It is easy to overlook the significance of headlights. But, they serve a crucial purpose in any vehicle and prevents majority of road accidents. Similar to other parts, these headlights are also susceptible to wear and electrical failures. In such cases, vehicle owners must deploy necessary counters measures by taking their car to a local auto shop and get the headlights fixed.

Dimming

There are two possible reasons for a dim headlight. First, a thin of grime will develop over time when the headlight covers are not cleaned properly. This problem is common around cars with poor maintenance. The grime buildup affects the overall effectiveness of a component, causing dimness. If the problem persists even after through cleaning, then the build may be near its service life end.

Flickering

When vehicles lights flickering while on road, it puts the drivers under serious trouble. Hence, they should address flickering as quickly as possible. This issue is caused by damaged bulb filament. Similarly, flickering also indicates that headlights have a faulty connection. Either way, performing replacement will fix the problem.

Single light out

Noticing a single burned out light can be challenging. But, it is a significant warning sign that a car’s bulbs are nearing the end of their service life. Technicians will replace both of the bulbs since headlights are installed in pairs. So, when one goes burned out, the other will start to dim as well.

Haziness

It is common for headlights to common yellow or hazy when they are damaged. Additionally, it could also indicate connection failure at some parts. Regular inspections are necessary to fix this problem.

Steps in replacing headlights

If their headlights are starting to get yellowish or dim, car owners should replace them as quickly as possible. One viable way of doing this is by taking vehicles to a local auto shop. Technicians will follow a specific set of steps to replace damaged bulbs with a new one.

Buy materials

Owners should start by buying all the supplies they need for this process. The simplest solution is to buy a replacement kit which comes with all the necessary items. They can also opt for other popular kits available with polishing compound, UV sealant, and microfiber towels.

Cleaning

As cited above, headlight covers will develop a buildup of grime when not maintained properly. It is essential to clean this grime sediment so that tape and adhesives will stick without any problem. If needed, they can also wash the area around a component.

Sanding

The most pivotal step in this process is sanding. People should start with the most abrasive sandpapers to sand the lens in horizontal strokes. Most importantly, make sure the surface is wet while working on it. Then, repeat the process with less abrasive sandpapers for a finer grit each time.

Polish

Next, use polishing compound and rub the surface in a circular motion for few minutes. People can use microfiber cloth for this step. Technicians at the auto shop will use orbital buffer to get this process completed quicker. This step is essential to clean and polish the headlight.

Carvana is not new to innovative automobile sales and their new car vending machine just highlights how they are revolutionizing the car-buying industry, as AZCentral explains, “People buying a used car or truck through Carvana can have a vehicle delivered straight to their driveway, but roughly half of buyers choose to go get it themselves. And why not? Self-pickup through Carvana means heading to one of the company’s special “vending machine” parking structures, dropping a commemorative coin into a slot and watching as electric motors whirl, pulleys spin and chains whizz into motion. Coin activation propels a special elevator platform that retrieves the designated vehicle from its slot — possibly eight or nine stories up the structure — then delivers it down into a bay for waiting buyers in a matter of minutes. ‘Whole families come and watch,’ said Ryan Keeton, Carvana’s co-founder and chief brand officer. ‘It’s a unique pickup experience’…Carvana’s first Arizona vending machine, and 12th nationally,opened this week in north Tempe to serve customers in the Phoenix metro area…More than just a gimmick, the unusual nine-story-tall, glass-enclosed parking structure with nine electric motors provides marketing visibility for Carvana to the thousands of drivers who pass each day on Loop 202 at Scottsdale Road. It also provides an efficient way to get autos into the hands of new buyers, Keeton said. The facility, on roughly an acre of land, is highly automated and requires only a few people to operate it, with up to 34 vehicles stacked inside (Chevrolet Tahoe trucks are the largest that will fit). He contrasts that with a typical auto dealership that takes up several acres, displaying hundreds of cars and trucks and staffed with dozens of people.”

Many people dread the traditional car buying experience than at involves going to a dealership, walking around a huge lot looking for a vehicle, negotiating with a salesman, filling out endless paperwork, and generally spending hours upon hours trying to purchase a new vehicle.  Carvana’s new way of selling vehicles online and allowing customers to pick up their vehicle from a vending machine eliminates the traditional hassles and makes the car buying process not only easier but actually fun!

What Is the Problem?

The defect itself is related to an issue present within the control modules of the second-row windows. When rolling up or down, these windows may halt intermittently. This means if a person’s body part, most likely a finger, got caught within the power window, the control modules would prevent the window from automatically reversing. This could lead to significant injury.

This defect is in direct violation of Safety Standard 118 Section 5, which states that any vehicle that weighs more than 10,000 pounds needs to contain an efficient power window system that minimizes the possibility of injury or death due to accidental operation.

How Was the Defect Discovered?

Engineers first realized something was wrong in December of 2017. Engineers realized there was a problem with the second-row windows in two models of Ford vehicles. Once brought to the attention of superiors, it was found that control modules for these windows were perhaps improperly assembled for vehicles that went to Ford. Ford conducted its own tests, which led to the discovery of the potential defect.

What Is Ford Prepared To Do?

Ford should have notified the owners of any affected vehicles already. They should have completed this task in February 2018. Anyone who was contacted should take their Ford vehicle to a licensed Ford dealer immediately for a comprehensive inspection. A professional will look at the control modules and replace them if they are deemed insufficient. They will be replaced with modules that meet safety standards. Naturally, all of this will be performed free of charge.

If you purchased a 2018 Force Expedition or Lincoln Navigator and was not contacted, then you may want to consider getting your vehicle inspected just to be safe. Ford should have notified owners via first-class mail, so if you are worried the company had your wrong address, then you should remain proactive.

Safety Features Aren’t Cheap

In the past, cars didn’t have many safety features. Nowadays, vehicles are full of components intended to keep you and your passengers safe during collisions. These components touch virtually every part of your automobile. They also aren’t cheap to manufacturer, service or repair. Meanwhile, if you need to access another system, you often must go around or remove safety features. Doing so, of course, often requires you to pay extra.

Modern Cars Are Complicated

Safety features aren’t the only culprit making repairing modern cars expensive. Virtually all systems in today’s vehicles have electrical components, complex designs and other aspects that make repairs complicated. Highly technical repairs involve many steps and typically take a long time to complete. Further, since many mechanics charge an hourly rate for repairs, long, complicated fixes typically result in an expensive invoice.

Mechanics Require Expertise

Successfully repairing cars requires tapping into considerable knowledge and expertise while using special skills. Generally, the more technology a car has, the better abilities the repair technician must possess. As you may imagine, hiring good mechanics requires paying a fair wage. To make a profit, repair shop managers often must pass higher labor costs through to you.

Materials Are Expensive

Today’s motor vehicles usually aren’t made with vintage materials. Instead, modern automakers often use state of the art components that are expensive to produce. Even though mechanical shops often try to find the lowest prices on repair parts, components are usually more expensive for newer vehicles due to higher production costs.

Calibration Takes Time and Money

Newer cars, trucks and SUVs are sensitive machines. Following a repair, most require alignment, calibration, programming and other modern services. These procedures, though, may not always be cheap but are usually vital to completing the repair. Likewise, calibrating repaired vehicles usually takes time, requiring the car owner to pay higher labor costs for the calibration job.

High-tech vehicles have the modern features that many drivers want. They also can be extremely expensive to repair. Instead of suffering sticker shock, understand why your high-tech car may cost a fortune to repair so that you can budget to keep it in tip-top shape.

Solar Panel Problems

Responding to a question from Vermont Governor Phil Scott about the feasibility of car rooftop solar panels, Musk stated that putting solar panels on a car is “not that helpful, because the actual surface of the car is not that much, and cars are often inside. The least efficient place to put solar is on the car.” This despite Tesla’s controversial 2016 merger with SolarCity Corporation, the San Mateo, California, company that markets and installs commercial and residential solar panels.

Today’s commercially viable panels require a good deal of surface space since they only absorb about 20 percent of the sun’s radiation. The $130,000 Karma Revero’s rooftop solar panels provide less than two miles of range. Toyota’s plan to install small rooftop panels on its cars has been waylaid by American rollover crash tests. Obviously a roof panel made of glass does not do at all well in a crash.

Solar Wrap Problems

Governor Scott next asked about the feasibility of putting some sort of a solar wrap around cars. Musk responded by saying that such an option wouldn’t work either due to the fact that such a wrap would need to be thin and flexible, making it less efficient. Today’s rooftop panels not only are prohibitively expensive, but also heavy. Each panel weighs 2-4 pounds per square foot, making panels far too heavy for aluminum or plastic car body exteriors to bear.

A Three-legged Stool

Musk explained that the three legs to the renewable energy car stool are the following:

1. Solar power
2. Stationary battery pack
3. Electric cars

“With those three things,” said Musk, “you can have a completely sustainable energy future.”

Overall U.S. Solar Power Feasibility

Musk posited that any grand plan to power the United States via solar energy must include personal rooftop solar panels and “utility scale solar” produced by major solar farms that feed into massive batteries that store power for peak-use hours. Tesla soon will be selling rooftop panels for $21.85 per square foot.

According to Musk, the vision of a solar-powered America does not include covering the Tesla 3 or any other vehicle with solar panels. Rather, the better plan is to stay the course with solar roofs on homes and/or commercial properties, not cars, although putting battery packs on cars is a workable idea.

What is ADAS Technology?

ADAS stands for “Advanced Driver Assistance Systems,” and is a new technology commonly implemented in newer vehicles. An example of such a system would be the back-up camera, the automatic emergency-braking systems or the forward-collision warning systems. Not only do consumers want these systems in their vehicles as they promote comfort and safety, but also, the European Union and the United States government are both mandating that all vehicle manufacturers equip their new models with these safety applications. While this is great for drivers’ safety, it is not so great for their wallets.

How is ADAS Technology Increasing Vehicle Repair Costs?

ADAS technology is highly advanced, and as such, repairing a vehicle with such applications requires a whole new level of understanding for mechanics and repair people. Not to mention, because ADAS technology is actually implemented into certain components of a vehicle, what once might have been a standard repair might become a full on replacement.

For example, ADAS systems like autobraking are often implemented in the back of the review mirror so that they can “look” out of the windshield. If the windshield becomes damaged, it may mean that the entire camera system needs to be recalibrated, which would require a knowledgeable mechanic, a significant amount of time and costly materials. If the windshield needs to be replaced entirely, there is the very real possibility that only OEM glass can be used.

OEM windshields with ADAS technology are vastly more expensive than those without. According to Thatcham, a Volkswagen Golf windshield can cost 78% more to replace than a pre-ADAS windshield. A Ford Focus windshield replacement can cost as much as 123% more.

Finally, repair shops will be forced to hire individuals that specialize in the diagnostics and calibration of vehicles with ADAS technology, a whole different set of costs entirely.

Vehicle repair is certainly a booming industry, but industry insiders fear that the sky-rocking costs posed by advanced technologies and complex materials may force vehicle owners to seek out the help of amateur mechanics or, worse yet, forego repair entirely. Though ADAS technology has gone a long ways to improving driver safety, industry experts agree that there has got to be a better and cheaper way, something they are currently in the process of working towards.