Why are car windows & windshields glass and not a kind of plastic?
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The glass used in cars is extremely strong, much stronger than a similarly sized piece of plastic.
Basically, this isn’t like old windows, it’s a highly engineered prodcut designed for use in a car.
The windshield of a car is made from laminated glass. This process makes the glass strong and if it is broken, it will not break into shards and will instead hold its shape (ish). This is preferred because if a brick or something hits a car, the glass might break but it will not turn into dangerous shards and will likely still stop the brick.
Considering the motion of a car, high velocity things are likely to come at the front.
Laminated glass is also good at absorbing energy. If you hit a pedestrian, the glass will collapse under them cushioning the blow.
The passenger windows are tempered. Tempered glass is HARD. Like seriously, where the windshield has some give, the side windows have NONE.
This protects from them getting damaged from general wear and tear.
Also another feature of tempered glass is that is can be shattered by using a small focused point of energy. This means that it is easy to shatter using a simple tool which is helpful in getting people out of the car.
With the side windows, there is less of a concern of a high velocity object flying through the window and hitting a passenger. The windows are smaller (the frame of the car protects you) and that’s just not the direction where shit flies at you from.
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