On the Road with Corning Gorilla Glass For Automotive Interiors | The Glass Age | Corning

Imagine sliding into the driver’s seat of your car – what do you see? Your typical steering wheel, a boring dashboard, and an outdated, bulky center console with buttons, knobs, and dials. The interior of your car no longer has to be so blasé. With more and more designers incorporating precision glass into car interiors, your driving experience is transforming into a unique, enhanced ride.

While Corning® Gorilla® Glass has been revolutionizing mobile consumer electronics for the last 10 years, this versatile material is now accelerating into the automotive industry, enabling a smartphone-like experience within your car. Say goodbye to dull, stationary interiors and hello to the ultimate in connectivity and sleek design.

“Consumers have formed an emotional connection with their smartphones, keeping them connected with friends and family and allowing them to customize daily aspects of their lives,” said Christie McCarthy, director, commercial operations for Corning® Gorilla® Glass for Automotive Interiors. “Bringing the smartphone experience into the car further enables the digital lifestyle car buyers desire.”

So how does Corning help car designers deliver that digital lifestyle through precision glass?

Already known for scratch resistance and toughness on handheld devices, Gorilla Glass drives those same benefits into the auto space. Compared to plastic, glass covering the dashboard, console, and other interior surfaces can add a layer of enhanced durability – an important distinction in a vehicle most drivers own for at least six years, according to industry experts. Corning® Gorilla® Glass for Automotive Interiors also performs better than soda lime glass, which is 10 times more likely to break and eight times more apt to scratch compared to Gorilla Glass.

Knobs and buttons can make the driving experience bulky and hard to manage. With Gorilla Glass on your dashboard and center console, Corning is bringing to life today the connected car experience of the future. Instead of pushing buttons, or turning knobs, glass surfaces with touch sensitivity allow a quick tap of the finger or swipe of the hand to customize settings to your own liking without losing focus of what’s on the road. And with smooth glass surfaces comes the added option of surface treatments such as anti-reflective or anti-glare – both addressing common problems with screens used outside. When surface treatments are applied, the creativity doors open, allowing designers to eliminate dashboard “eyebrows” – a common feature in a car that involves a molded projection over a deeply recessed console that functions as a shield from the sun.

When you think of glass, you normally think of a flat sheet, right? Gorilla Glass provides designers the capability of flexing glass into 3D shapes. What’s even more exciting, complex 3D shapes designed with Gorilla Glass can be easily and inexpensively made with Corning’s cold-form process, which permits glass to bend with ease while still maintaining its inherent strength. Designers now have unprecedented freedom to create custom designs and shapes for the interior of your car. That free-flowing, seamless center console you always dreamed of is now even easier and more affordable to design!

This is only the beginning of the car interior transformation – with the capabilities of glass always evolving, Corning is always finding new automotive opportunities with Corning® Gorilla® Glass for Automotive Interiors.

“Glass has evolved from a simple material to a tough, sophisticated medium at the forefront of our connected lives,” said McCarthy. “And now that connected life can travel with you in the car – we believe glass will remain at the center of the automotive industry, enabling chic, smart surfaces pleasing to both drivers and designers.”

Dreaming of a vehicle decked out in Corning® Gorilla® Glass for Automotive? Learn more about Corning's automotive glazing solutions and how we’re enabling lighter, tougher, more optically advantaged vehicles.