Glass roof-very fragile?

[as90]

Hi,
I am ready to pull the trigger on a Model Y as I am sick of paying for gas. My concern is the glass roof-how fragile is it? As a young kid who was in a horrific motor vehicle accident and had shards of glass lodged in my body for many years, I am fearful of the glass shattering while I am driving and going into my eyes. I have never owned a vehicle with a glass roof and I worry about what could happen in that event. Is it more prone to break in cold weather? If a pebble hits it? I am just wondering. Any way I can put something there as a cushion? Why did they have to do this? any additional insurance I should get?

Thanks for any tips. Love the car otherwise but this is a genuine concern of mine.

 

[jcanoe]

The glass roof is made of laminated glass (same as the windshield and the front side windows.) The glass can be chipped by a stone (especially on the leading edge or side edge, then a crack can form and spread. (There is a post by a Model Y owner whose child jumped up in the back seat and hit the glass roof from the inside and cracked the glass; no debris just an expensive repair. If it cracks the glass roof would have to be replaced by Tesla.

Many install an inside mesh fabric sunshade for the glass roof. The sunshade is not designed to catch falling glass (but it could catch small pieces of debris) it is intended to reduce the rays of the sun. (The glass roof has factory UV and IR rejection built in, filters 95% of the visible light. Still, the glass roof lets in a lot of light and some heat. You can add tint to the glass roof for additional filtering (some say adding a ceramic tint helps reduce the heat from the roof. Others say there is not much difference.)

 

[Yelobird]

Not a concern. Like every window it’s laminated. No more dangerous then any other window.

 

[brkaus]

Ouch. Sorry about you accident! What year car was that and which windows caused the Injury?

I had two shards of glass in me from a bike accident. They came out months later. That was painful, I cannot imagine more imbedded glass

 

[Johnny Vector]

I would not have chosen a glass roof if I had the option (mainly because I don't want to crack it if I slip while loading up the roof rack with 2x4s or something), but it's worth noting that the window most likely to be hit by flying debris is the windshield. By a huge margin. Pretty much anything you might hit on the road is traveling toward the windshield at however fast you're going, and parallel to the other windows and the roof.

So, other than what damage you might do with a dropped tie-down, I don't see the glass roof as much of an addition to the risk of broken glass.

 

[Clark_Kent]

There is no concern with the glass roof. Also, be sure you've performed enhanced due diligence on Model Y and Tesla as a brand before you make the plunge. Being tired of paying for gas shouldn't be the primary driver of EV adoption.

 

[thesmokingman]

Hi,
I am ready to pull the trigger on a Model Y as I am sick of paying for gas. My concern is the glass roof-how fragile is it? As a young kid who was in a horrific motor vehicle accident and had shards of glass lodged in my body for many years, I am fearful of the glass shattering while I am driving and going into my eyes. I have never owned a vehicle with a glass roof and I worry about what could happen in that event. Is it more prone to break in cold weather? If a pebble hits it? I am just wondering. Any way I can put something there as a cushion? Why did they have to do this? any additional insurance I should get?

Thanks for any tips. Love the car otherwise but this is a genuine concern of mine.

 

[darein]

I had minor hail and the roof was fine, for whatever that is worth.

I've driven 5690mi and charged 1.57MW/hr. I pay 12.5c/(kw/h), so around $125 (only a little Super Charging, so actually slightly higher). My previous ICE got ~35mpg average (assuming $3.15/gal) same distance would cost $512. This intuitively makes sense since the Y gets ~125MPGe. So some savings. Having said that, the Model Y is (for) much more expensive per month for loan, insurance, and registration fee per year, so I don't actually save anything per month. That will of course chance once the loan is paid off (and insurance/registration decreases as car value decreases). Primary driver for EV probably shouldn't be cost savings, at least a Tesla immediately.

 

[roblab]

Also, be sure you've performed enhanced due diligence on Model Y and Tesla as a brand before you make the plunge. Being tired of paying for gas shouldn't be the primary driver of EV adoption.

Yeah, gotta remember there's also almost zero maintenance, quieter driving experience, more torque, and less pollution being put into the environment. Being tired of paying for gas can be remedied by stealing gas from your neighbor's car, though that's getting harder every year.

 

[WyomingEV]

Hi,
I am ready to pull the trigger on a Model Y as I am sick of paying for gas. My concern is the glass roof-how fragile is it? As a young kid who was in a horrific motor vehicle accident and had shards of glass lodged in my body for many years, I am fearful of the glass shattering while I am driving and going into my eyes. I have never owned a vehicle with a glass roof and I worry about what could happen in that event. Is it more prone to break in cold weather? If a pebble hits it? I am just wondering. Any way I can put something there as a cushion? Why did they have to do this? any additional insurance I should get?

Thanks for any tips. Love the car otherwise but this is a genuine concern of mine.

My Model 3 has been through 2 major hail storms the the glass on the car held up fine! It actually was better for the car as the hail damage was concentrated to the hood and other metal parts of the car. You will love it, the views are amazing.