I wear polarized sunglasses because they're great for killing glare. When I visited the Honda dealer, I test drove a Civic EX coupe as well as the Hybrid. In the Hybrid, I could easily see the speedometer display. In the non-hybrid, the display was very dim (and before anyone says anything, I did check to make sure the display brightness was set to maximum). The radio display was only slightly dimmed in the Hybrid, and very dim in the EX. Is Honda using different materials/coatings in the Hybrid displays? Am I going to have visibility issues with the Nav display?

 

In the Car and Driver review of the Civic Hybrid, Patrick Bedard's Counterpoint specifically mentioned the effect of the dash with polarized glasses, in fact calling it a "dealbreaker" for him. He didn't specifically mention the Navi screen. I don't know if it will have the same effect with the navigation display since you're looking at it at an angle compared to straight-on with the dashboard.

Jeff
T-24:20 till pick-up :-)

 

Wow, if this is true it is a very serious oversight on Honda's part.

Many of us wear polarized sunglasses when driving.

 

Anything that uses LCD screens is going to have some issues when using polarized sunglasses. That's how simple monochromatic lcd screens work, they use a polarized piece of glass (not sure how the color ones differ).

If you remember from physics class, when you hold two pieces of polarized glassparallel to each other, you can vary the opaque/transparent quality by rotating them against each other. The way it works is that light rays have two components (polarities), each perpendicular to the other, a polarized glass only lets the "horizontal" or "vertical" components through depending on its rotation. If you take two pieces of polarized glass you can rotate them against each other to remove a variable amount of vertical and horizontal light, thus creating the darkening effect - in some cases making it completely opaque if you have two pieces rotated at 90 degress from each other.

The screen itself is using a piece of polarized glass, and a thin layer of fluid that appears clear when its not energized and behaves like a thin layer of polarized glass when energized. The glass is only letting half the light through (one polarity). A small amount of electric current run through portions of the fluid "polarizes" the particles so that they align. The glass is oriented 90 degrees against the alignment of the fluid particles and the fluid layer takes out the other half of the light (the opposite polarity). By creating two layers of polarized material with a 90 degree shift, the screen is blocking out both polarities of light in some places, creating opaque portions that appear black to us. The light portions are where the fluid is not polarized so the display is still letting the one polarity of light through. These light portions can be darkened with another rotated polarized lens.

So, depending on the rotation of your sunglass lenses you will notice a varialbe effect when looking through another polarized glass, like an LCD display. I have even noticed this effect with window glass, both of my subarus create dark patches when wearing polarized sunglasses. You can observe this by using two polarized lenses, like two pairs of sunglasses or two loose lenses. Hold them parallel to each other and rotate one of them. You'll see it getting lighter and darker. You can also try this by putting on the glasses and rotating your head while looking at an LCD screen on a watch or another similar monochromatic display, like the clocks in some cars.

For the color screens, I think they may work differently, at least the computer screens do. They're doing something much more complex than creating a light/dark display with polarization.

 

I wear polarized sunglasses, and haven't noticed a problem.

 

Like I said, no issue in the Hybrid but difficulty in the EX coupe. Confusing

 

This is not entirely accurate. Ambient light is randomly polarized - it contains elements in every possible angle of polarization. Light that is reflected from a smooth surface is mostly polarized. If you pass random light through polarizing glass you get polarized light in roughly half the intensity of the original light.

Polarized glasses are meant to cut down glare. When driving, the glare comes mostly from horizontal surfaces like the road ahead of you, your dashboard, etc. The light reflected from those surfaces is mostly horizontally polarized, so polarized sunglasses are vertically polarized for the most beneficial effect. If the LCD emission is polarized, Honda should have been smart enough to make sure it is vertically polarized, which would allow it to pass without interference through vertically polarized sunglasses.

I have a pair of polarized glasses at home. I'll check the displays next chance I get.

 

In part it maybe the result of the kind of polarized glasses your wearing. I've worn about half a dozen different pairs (cheap and expensive) and can notice a difference between. I use REVO polarize glass lens and works excellent.

 

I have Costa Del Mar sunglasses.

 

Mine cost $10 from some gas station just north of Kingman, AZ.