Nikon: SeeCoat Drive
The SeeCoat Drive is Nikon’s clear anti-reflection coating that imbues an everyday lens with enhanced driving performance for wear both day and night. Nikon notes that many anti-reflection coatings have a green reflectance and, as it gets dark, eyes become more sensitive to green wavelengths so these reflections become more noticeable and are perceived as glare. By shifting reflectance from green to a colour the eye is less sensitive to in the dark, SeeCoat Drive reduces the sensation of glare, improving comfort and confidence on the road. SeeCoat Drive also benefits from super easy clean, dust and smudge resistance technologies, ultraviolet protection and warranty against scratches. The product is available on all designs, materials including 1.74 and in clear, Transitions and Transitions Xtractive. Overall Nikon describes SeeCoat Drive as the optimised and go to solution for anyone spending time on the road.
Zeiss: DriveSafe
Zeiss DriveSafe is said to be an everyday lens that has been designed, using innovative technology, to meet the visual challenges involved with driving. The company says innovative technologies optimise vision in low light conditions, reduce discomfort from on-coming headlights and help with difficulty refocusing between the road, dashboard and mirrors. Zeiss Luminance Design Technology considers different light conditions and pupil sizes to optimise vision in low light. Zeiss DuraVision DriveSafe Coating reduces glare illuminance by partially reflecting blue light, enhancing visual contrast and reducing perceived glare. Zeiss DriveSafe Progressive Lenses, with optimised distance and intermediate viewing zones, make it easier to quickly refocus.
Younger Optics: Drivewear
Younger Optics describes its Drivewear product as the only intelligent resin photochromic polarised prescription sunglass lens for drivers. Furthermore, the company says Drivewear guarantees only useful light reaches the eye, meaning contrast is enhanced while depth perception and visual acuity improve. The product is said to fade and darken instantly, adapt imperceptibly to all daylight driving conditions and block distracting and discomforting glare at all times. Meeting all international sunglass standards, Drivewear is supplied as plano with Trivex and an inside anti-reflection coating, or to prescription into all ophthalmic quality frames, including 8 base, semi-rimless and rimless mounts.
Drivewear uses a Transitions photochromic dye, activated by ultraviolet and visible light, which is combined with NuPolar polarising film. The US patent 6926405 describes Drivewear as having a selective spectral response. Younger says the Drivewear sunglass collection and Drivewear lenses are available via any privately owned Rx house throughout the UK and Ireland.
Hoya: EnRoute
Hoya EnRoute lenses are said to be designed specifically for motorists with the aim of minimising stress on the visual system and providing a more comfortable driving experience. The lenses combine a premium single vision or progressive lens design with Hoya’s specially developed Glare Filter and an optional contrast-enhancing filter. Hoya says EnRoute offers clear, contrast-rich vision of the far distance, the dashboard and in the mirrors. The lenses are said to enable drivers to feel comfortable and confident on the road, whatever the weather or time of day, and are suitable for all kinds of drivers, from regular commuters and road-trip lovers to people running occasional errands. Meanwhile, the company’s EnRoute Pro product is said to offer the extra visual support required by professional
drivers who are on the road frequently and for long
periods of time.
Essilor: Transitions Xtractive
Transitions Xtractive is an optimised photochromic lens for patients who require extra darkness outside and in the car. Unlike some photochromic lenses, it is said to seamlessly activate behind the windscreen to reduce sun glare. It does this by collecting extra energy in the lower end of the light spectrum. Tim Precious, managing director at Essilor UK, says: ‘It is the darkest photochromic lens in the Transitions portfolio making it perfect for drivers who are looking for convenience and protection behind the wheel. It provides remarkable comfort to the wearer in the brightest sunshine and when activated, reaches up to category 2 darkness, offering full UVA and UVB protection.’ Essilor also notes that Transitions Xtractive lenses block 88% of blue-violet light outdoors and 34% indoors, helping to protect eyes at all times
Rodenstock: Road
Rodenstock says its driving spectacle lenses have been developed to address changing lighting conditions, headlight dazzle, reflecting lanes and other challenges drivers’ eyes face when travelling. The Rodenstock Road lenses are also said to be suitable for everyday wear to ensure wearers do not have to change their spectacles when entering and exiting a vehicle. The company states that fatigue-free and optimised spatial vision in changing lighting conditions are capabilities the lenses provide both for driving and standard wear. Furthermore, Solitaire Protect Road 2 coating is used on the driving lenses and is said to reduce dazzling effects from modern xenon or LED headlights. Agitating reflections, such as those from wet roads, are reduced significantly with enhanced contrast during the day, also a benefit for driving. Rodenstock notes that using its DNEye Pro Technology, 80% of people experienced improved vision at dusk.
Jai Kudo Lenses: Drivesense
Jai Kudo recommends its Drivesense lenses for driving during the day and at night, saying the lenses are specifically designed to help wearers focus both inside and outside the car. The company states that night myopia affects one out of three people, making it difficult to see distant objects at night, and that Drivesense single vision and varifocal lenses address this problem with a night vision zone within the lens. Jai Kudo says other benefits include improved visual fields to widen vision and reduce astigmatism, faster adaptation meaning eyes adjust to lenses almost immediately, easy focus and greater eye movement and a better vision of the dashboard and external and internal mirrors.
Lenstec: Exceed-Drive
Exceed-Drive from Lenstec is said to offer a solution for progressive wearers who spend any time behind the wheel. Also suitable for general wear, Lenstec says Exceed-Drive addresses the limitations that standard progressives place on driver vision, which can lead to fatigue or loss of confidence, especially at night. With the power distribution adapted for driving, Exceed-Drive incorporates Digital Ray-Path Technology that, according to Lenstec, ensures optimal vision over a larger distance area and also features a night vision zone to compensate for wearers who suffer from night myopia. A 45% larger intermediate and 14.6% less astigmatism is said to allow for a more natural viewing of instrumentation and the driver area. Lenstec recommend ordering Exceed-Drive in conjunction with Smar.t Drive coating to help further reduce distracting glare and fatigue.
Optimum: Optiform Drive
Optimum notes that driving is a task that has very specific optical requirements with the positions of the dashboard, external and internal mirrors and the strong distance jump between looking at the road or looking inside. The lab’s Optiform Drive product is based on the Inmotion lens design from Indizen Optical Technologies. Optimum says the lens enhances distance vision to provide the wearer with a perfect view of the road and that a single vision version is now available. Optimum says this family of driving products offers practices the opportunity to prescribe a sophisticated and differentiated optical solution to driver patients.
