Some of the least enjoyable moments during driving occur when the sunlight is angled just right through the windshield. The world around you suddenly becomes almost impossible to discern, potentially posing a problem for yourself and everyone else on the road. And while nearly every commercial vehicle has featured sun visors for decades, little in their overall design has changed. But one company is offering carmakers a new take on the tried-and-true accessory: a translucent, auto-dimming antiglare visor for drivers and passengers.
Designers at Michigan-based company Gentex are no strangers to the concept. As The Drive explained, they’re the ones responsible for some of the first autodimming rear-view mirrors in the 1980s, as well as many current versions of digital rear-view mirrors. Although Gentex first debuted an earlier version of the dimmable, transparent lens in 2023, their latest iteration includes a number of new features. Apart from reducing glare on demand via dashboard touchscreen control, the visors are now also capable of transitioning into a vanity mirror through a specialized reflective layer, along with a transparent screen offering real-time alerts and notifications.
The visor—and a sunroof variant—relies on a concept known as electrochromatism, in which certain materials darken depending on their exposure to electricity. This typically had involved manufacturing reinforced glass imbued with metal oxides, most often tungsten oxide. But Gentex products instead utilize organic materials called viologens. These offer similar hue-shifting properties, but are often less expensive, less toxic, and easier to recycle. Viologen-powered “smart windows” from Gentex can already be found in some Boeing 787 aircraft, but for now, the sun visor variant remains one of the many prototypes on display at CES 2025.
It’s easy to envision a scenario where an eye-level pane of smart glass stuffed with high-tech features becomes an unintentional distraction. At the same time, responsible usage could actually offer a driver’s field of view that traditional visors obstruct. At this point, however, it’s up to automotive designers to decide if Gentex’s newest ideas wind up in next-generation cars.
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