Something Is Making Sunroofs Explode — and Nobody Knows What

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There are a lot of risks that come with driving. Even if you are a great, safe driver in a well-maintained vehicle, sometimes things can just go wrong.

Nothing illustrates this better than a recent report from the Wall Street Journal that revealed a startling truth: car sunroofs are exploding at a remarkably high rate in 2026. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received 550 reports of broken sunroofs in 2025. The administration has already received nearly 500 this year.

So what’s causing these sunroofs to shatter? And are they really “exploding,” or is that just internet sensationalism? Let’s take a look.

Why Sunroofs are Shattering

“I’m not even joking, it sounded like a gunshot.” That’s what Louisiana driver Amber Nguyen told the Wall Street Journal after an incident in which her sunroof randomly shattered above her head while she was driving. Fortunately, the car’s sunshade was closed, keeping the glass out of the car’s cabin.

Reports similar to Amber’s have been flooding the NHTSA all year. What makes these reports frustrating and confounding is that no one knows exactly what is causing these sunroof catastrophes.

If you look at the last three years of reported sunroof defects, they involve more than 200 individual models from 17 different manufacturers. So it doesn’t seem that these sunroof incidents can be traced to a specific brand or manufacturing defect. The NHTSA has already spent seven years investigating sunroof complaints related to the Kia Sorento. A Mercedes-Benz case was just dismissed this past July after plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient evidence that their shattered roofs were due to manufacturing defects.

“Mercedes vehicles with panoramic sunroofs suffer from a design, manufacturing and/or materials defect whereby their panoramic sunroofs will spontaneously shatter under normal driving conditions, creating a safety hazard for the vehicle occupants and surrounding traffic,” reads the case file. “The shattering events are typically sudden and loud, startling drivers who compare it to the sound of a gunshot or bomb, after which glass fragments rain down upon the occupants of the vehicle.”

That Mercedes case and the class action lawsuit against Kia were both dismissed because the plaintiffs could prove only that sunroofs sometimes explode, not that it was a problem for any particular brand.

The NHTSA believes that one likely reason for these sunroof issues may be nearly invisible damage from small rocks and debris striking the tempered glass. Over time, even the tiniest cracks can spread into a much larger issue.

What the Numbers Say

Of course, there is always Occam’s Razor to consider. Perhaps the simple answer is that there are more reported instances of exploding or shattering sunroofs because more cars have sunroofs than they did even ten years ago. According to the New York Times, 40 percent of new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. now come with sunroofs—a nearly 10 percent increase from 2011.

With sunroof sizes stretching to the limit and more of them on the road than ever, it might not be long before the glass shattering over your head isn’t a crazy internet story but something that happens to you.