The Toyota iQ’s rear-window curtain airbag deployed from the roof lining above the back glass. Developed to help protect rear passengers’ heads in a rear-end collision, it addressed an obv
There is a particular stretch of road where the sun finds the narrow gap that your visor cannot quite cover. You swing the visor toward the side window, adjust it twice, and the light still lands squa
Long before carmakers filled dashboards with screens, an important piece of engine information was displayed outside the windshield. Early automobiles often carried their radiator filler caps at
Inside a modern automotive design studio, there are enormous screens, virtual-reality headsets, laser scanners, 3D printers and computers capable of rendering a car so convincingly that its paint appe
Lower the front window in most cars and the glass disappears neatly inside the door. Try the same thing from the rear seat and several inches may remain stubbornly visible. The motor stops. The swi
Park a 1940s Jeep beside a Chevrolet sedan, an early Volkswagen Beetle and a British roadster, then look closely at their headlights. The surrounding bodies could hardly be more different. The glass c
The old battery has been replaced, the engine starts with renewed enthusiasm and the dashboard clock has been corrected. Then the driver’s window develops amnesia. It still moves when the swi
So, can you legally drive without a rearview mirror? The slightly irritating answer is: maybe. That is not very satisfying, but it is the truth. In the U.S., mirror laws are not perfectly iden
The window glides upward, touches the top of the frame and immediately retreats several inches. Try it again and the same thing happens. Up, nearly closed, then back down. It has the comic timing of a
They run around the edge of almost every modern windshield: a solid black border that gradually breaks into smaller and smaller dots before disappearing into clear glass. Most drivers have stared t