Phaeton instrument cluster glass

The instrument cluster glass?  Pfft.  Big deal.

Well, Schott Spezialglas AG's "Conturan" glass is sort of a big deal, in an anonymous, hiding-in-the-open kind of way.

• The special glass is more permeable to light and cuts reflection significantly.
• According to a German study, a driver processes an average of eight sensations per second.  We sometimes spend an extra fraction of a second looking at our instrument cluster due to glaring from the instrument cluster's glass.  Conturan reflects light at a rate of only 0.5% (instrument panel glass in other cars reflect at 8%).
• With such a low reflection rate, the instrument cluster does not have to sit so deep in a dashboard, away from the sun.  Phaeton designers thus had more freedom in where to place the cluster.
• Normal glass is etched to reduce reflection.  The trade-off there is a drop in transparency.  With Conturan, three metal oxide coatings are applied to both sides instead.  Each coating has a maximum thickness of 1/100,000,000 of a millimeter. 

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