Rexorg

I contacted Acura customer service today and was told non-navi RLs and/or navi RLs with the screen turned off do not have this problem when wearing polarized sunglasses. I also told them when I close my eyes I cannot see at all, with or without sunglasses. They told me to see a doctor, preferably a psychiatrist.

kirbyflorida

Is it possible to buy non polarized sun glasses????????

doob

Not so. I have been in Lexus and Range Rover/Land Rover and others with screens with perfect visability with same polarized glasses that are unusable in 2007 RL. I test drove my RL on a rainy day and didn't even consider the possibility of this problem.

I have complained to my dealer and they are contacting factory reps for more info. As previously mentioned, I cannot understand the lack of attention to this detail in a retail $50,000 whose drivers will certainly be wearing polarized glasses. This is not a Yugo.


More to follow.

-doob-

GoHawks

I wear polarized Ray-Bans. No problems with the RL, aside from the display being a little darker. Now it's a different story with my Toyota Land Cruiser. The screen is basically unreadable when I wear the glasses and I have to tilt my head 90 degrees to be able to read it. It's a funny sight that cracks my wife up everytime I'm driving her car.

** Edit **

Just read the rest of the thread and noticed the differentiation between '06 and '07.

Sorry.

Mike_TX

Doob, I'm not arguing with your right to be annoyed with this, but I find it odd you consider it a quality, or lack of attention to detail, issue.

No one here seems to have considered it might be as much the fault of the GLASSES as the display. After all, polarization requires the interaction of two polarized light sources to work. To say one of them is wrong and the other is right is, well, a little shallow. True, your polarized glasses might have worked fine in other cars, but the fact they clash with this car's display doesn't make this car wrong, or low-quality ... it simply means they used a different polarization method from your glasses manufacturer. In other words, polarization methods aren't "right"or "wrong".

I have a digital camera, for instance, that doesn't work well with linear polarizers, but works great with circular polarizers. Does that make the camera low-quality, or mean that the manufacturer didn't pay attention to detail? Nope. It simply means they chose a lens system that works best with circular polarizers.

Every piece of anything that goes into a car generally gets extreme scrutiny by engineers, designers, and testers. They freeze it, cook it, torture it, bend it, twist it, test it ... and it eventually gets approved. Under that scenario, I really doubt someone at Acura looked at something so visible as the main display and just said, "Get some cheapo display and slap it in the RL."

I'm sorry you have an issue with the display, but I kinda think your aggression is a little misplaced ...

But that's just my opinion.

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Chas2

I had the distinct pleasure of driving a Mercedes 450SEL 6.9 courtesy of a brother in law who lent me the car while my Honda Accord was in the shop. What a blast! You were up to 90 before you knew it, especially coming from a 1.6 litre Accord. Of course, it later turned out that the car belonged to someone else, that my brother in law was "holding it for". I never asked the details on that, and did not want to know. We no longer associate with that relative, and have not for almost two decades. Nevertheless, it was a great ride for a day.

VPescado

Actually, when discussing the polarization of sunglasses, there is a "right":

For polarized sunglasses to cut glare they need to block light that is horizontally polarized - light reflected off of horizontal surfaces in front of you (such as the surface of a lake, or the roadway) tends to be horizontally polarized. By blocking such polarized light, sunglasses greatly reduce glare.

This does not work if the polaroid used to create the lenses is mounted at the wrong angle, or if the glasses were to use circular polarization.

I am not saying that there aren't cheaply made sunglasses that are not made correctly, but it is reasonable to expect that a driver will sometimes wear polarized sunglasses, and aligned as to block horizontally polarized light (and allow vertically polarized light). It would be unreasonable to expect them to block vertically polarized light, or to expect that circular polarization (btw circular polarization is a moot point as I don't believe any LCD displays use it - nor can I envision a design that would).

Given the above, Acura should go to some effort to make sure that the polarization of their display will work with 99% of polarized sunglasses use.

Rexorg

Results of experiment:

Good quality ($65-$100) Polaroid sunglasses (2 pairs) do not interfere with viewing the RL's LCD display, both upper and lower, unless the reflective light angle off the display is changed by turning your head, sunglasses, etc. several degrees. Total darkness achieved at 90 degree rotation when viewing screen head on.

Poor quality ($5-$20) Polaroid sunglasses (3 pair) sometimes do, and sometimes do not, interfere with viewing the RL's LCD display, both upper and lower. The poor quality sunglasses even had differences in the amount the individual lenses had to be turned in order to totally "darken" the RL's display. The range was from 45 to 90 degrees.

Conclusion: Buy a good quality (you get what you pay for) pair of Polaroid sunglasses and they will reduce the glare from the roadway while you are driving. Given the inherent properties of Polaroid sunglasses and the placement of the LCD screens in the RL it is virtually impossible not to have some apparent "darkening" while driving and trying to check the displays. Also, "test drive" the sunglasses before buying.

kirbyflorida

I have $200 Maui Jims and they effect the viewing due to polar.
My 2 pair of Revos perform the same as the Maui's.

Jeff_Drive

Polarized lenses are clearly superior to non-polarized lenses to reduce glare from the ground, reflections off other cars, etc. If you disagree with this statement -- forget it, skip to the next message/thread.

All polarized sunglasses lenses are vertically polarized (to the wearer) since light that gets reflected from horizontal surfaces becomes horizontally polarized. Vertical polarized lenses block horizontally polarized light.

Acura has/had an engineering issue. Tons of people wear polarized sunglasses – not for looks but to dramatically reduce glare. Acura messed up. They didn’t spec the screen correctly from the manufacturer.

Thank God, other car manufacturers don’t randomly throw LED screens into their cars or else we would expect 50% of the car brands to have this issue.

I haven’t checked out the 2008 Acura RL’s yet to see if they have this problem. But I did call their customer service and explained to them this issue with the 2007 RL’s

Jeff_Drive

New Honda Accord Review

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...d_N.htm?csp=34

Don Melcher

So - with my polarized RayBan perscription glasses (I was using a cheap pair of older polarized glasses when I first checked the display) - no problem from either seat.

Jeff_Drive

Test Drove an Acura RL 2008 two days ago and the Navigation screen is perfect with my polarized glasses. The sunglasses are the same pair that I wore when I discovered that the 2007 RL nav screen had problems. I tested a total of two 2007 RL’s.

neuronbob

I am hopeful that Acura has addressed this issue at the level of its navi supplier (Alpine?). Glad your experience was different this time around.

doob

Well, I also tested the 2008 against my 2007 and found it to be exactly the same as 2007. This was confirmed by the dealer and Service Dept. Further, I have a case open with Accura Client Services Dept. Their official line is that yes, they are aware of this polarization issue, that yes, it does exist, but they are NOT making an effort to find a work around or to correct it.... but "Thanks for calling"

The new nav screen in the Honda quoted in a previous post is limited to that one Honda model and has nothing at all to do with Acura.

By the way, Brian at the Client Services Dept at Acura was downright rude in his matter of fact attitude as if to say (if he could) "FU, thats the way it is, goodbye."

Although I do love the car otherwise, I could love another car too WHILE ENJOYING a corporate attitude dedicated to customer satisfaction.