In the past, laminated glass was usually installed in the windshield, with side and rear windows being tempered only.
The difference is that tempered glass is per-stressed so that when it cracks, it shatters into many tiny and dull pieces. Laminated is the same thing, but with layers of plastic sandwiched with layers of tempered glass. Laminated glass will still shatter, but will be held together by the plastic layers.
In an emergency, small improvised, or purpose built tools meant to shatter tempered glass will be useless if the glass is laminated.
If you’re underwater you’re not gonna be able to open the doors without breaking the window unless there’s an explosive. But partially submerged when 20% of the door is still above water then yes it should be possible to still open the door
Partially submerged, the door would be very hard to open, due to water pressure. The water pressure needs to fully equalized between the inside and outside of the car.
Did we learn nothing from Mythbusters?
I thought we were talking about manual override to pull the window down…
As Mythbusters proved, you wait until the car is almost full of water, and then open the door.
Not quite. There is a period where water pressure hasn’t built up enough to stop you. They were specifically testing pressure equalization, not that you should wait as a first course of action.