Gentex, the world’s largest supplier of auto-dimming rearview mirrors, says it plans to introduce see-through, dimmable sun visors beginning in 2027.
The Michigan-based company says the goal is to reduce on-road glare — an increasingly serious issue in recent years as headlights have grown brighter and more aggressive.
The sun visors, which are expected to debut in luxury vehicles, function much like traditional visors but incorporate a transparent, dimmable panel that can darken automatically or on demand. Gentex says the system relies on electrochromic technology, including light sensors, proprietary gels, and microprocessor-based algorithms that adjust tint levels in real time.
“The visor looks something like a big tinted lens, and as the sun gets brighter or the ongoing headlights get annoying it can be flipped,” Autoweek reports. “The visor dims depending on the intensity of the light directed at it. The driver can simply leave the visor flipped down, since in normal conditions it’s transparent.”
It all sounds promising — except for one thing.
This isn’t a new idea.
Back in 2013, The Hog Ring reported on Rosen’s Insight Sunvisor System, an aftermarket solution built on the same concept: transparent, tinted sun visors designed to block glare while preserving the driver’s full field of vision.
Other companies, including UBe1 Visors, have sold low-cost versions of similar products online for more than a decade.
As practical as dimmable sun visors may be, earlier versions never gained meaningful traction. Whether Gentex’s high-tech approach will finally push the concept into the mainstream remains to be seen.
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