Relative Cost and Strengths of Materials
The idea for a transparent car does not come from this article but this is the most complete analysis that I can find in the internet for free.
http://www2.gvsu.edu/peirsonb/spec_prop.pdf
The cost analysis could be faulty. The cost is per unit volume so is wrong. So divide the values by densities in order to give comparable performances. Plastics may not be strong by volume but by weight they are equivalent or even superior for the same cost. The prevalance of plastic toys is a good example of that. It is suprising that we cannot find plastic cars. What is needed is just thicker materials and the weight will be even lower for the same strength.
Cold rolled steel, C1018 may be slightly cheaper, 160 vs 213 for polycarbonate, but steel will rust and difficult to work with. Acrylic is not mentioned, but it is even cheaper but stronger than polycarbonate. It even has high transparency.
Acrylic has a problem in that it breaks easily, although up to 17 times more impact resistant than glass, whereas polycarbonate is up to 250 times stronger.
https://www.acplasticsinc.com/informationcenter/r/acrylic-vs-polycarbonate
Polycarbonate is also bulletproof to 9mm full metal jacket bullets.
https://youtu.be/Q4i18F_6Xqw
12.5mm thick Acrylic can stop standard 0.22 pistol bullets.
https://youtu.be/rIKCZZ4khRM
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