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Comment by no-s | Hacker News Reader

> Thermal change caused the crack to spread. It happens all the time with vehicle windshields.

This happened to my brother’s brand new Tesla. Tiny impact on the edge extended all the way across after a week in Tucson. Very sad, especially because the service was difficult (had to return to SoCal for repair). The next week around Tucson I looked for and spotted over a dozen Teslas with similar crack extensions.

It’s probably safer for it to be flimsy. If it shatters it will become chunks and not shards. The Air screen is big enough to make killer shards...

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Car windshields are laminated with plastic in the middle, precisely to prevent shards, and to not have it completely collapse in the event of an impact.

The rest of the windows are tempered glass, also to prevent shards.

Actually, windshield glass is designed to prefer cracking (and holding together) instead of shattering into chunks when it breaks like the side windows.

Relevant video about this design: https://youtu.be/aAsUG-jbLlM?t=131

Computer screen glass is also usually laminated (though here the goal is to fuse the glass very closely to the LCD panel so there's no unsightly "air gap")

There used to be a science show on German television that always demonstrated interesting engineering science bits at prime TV hours (knoffhoff show). They demonstrated windscreen security glass by someone jumping on a large (2mx2m or more) sheet between two wooden blocks. It looked like someone jumping on a springboard. At the end another person tapped the side of the glass using a small hammer and the glass shattered into tiny little pieces. The jumping guy was still on it, but did not get cut because all pieces where dull shards.

It really impressed my young self at the time.

Saying you are about 50 years old without saying you are about 50 years old :-)

This is a good place to remind that _never ever_ buy a Tesla. I was a huge fanboy and I do love my car, but their customer support and service centers are absolutely horrendous.

It's all great when nothing is wrong, but things eventually go wrong and you regret ever owning one. - Signed, a Tesla Owner who has been dealing with a very minor damage because some idiot couldn't take their eyes off of their phone in a 25mph zone.

Wait what? What do you mean return to socal

Vehicle likely had to be transported from Tucson, Arizona to SoCal == Southern California to a factory or more fully-equipped Tesla repair facility.

Yeah but that incredulous for a windshield replacement.

> incredulous for a windshield replacement.

I thought so too. That’s when I started noticing Teslas around town with cracked windshields, heheh.

> or more fully-equipped Tesla repair facility.

Correct. There was no authorized repair available in Tucson. The mobile windshield repair service declined to touch it. There was a possible repair in Phoenix (130 miles) but it wasn’t certain.

Correct re Southern California. He drove it back though. The rest of the family went back in a separate vehicle.

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