Historically speaking, side and rear windows were made from tempered glass that would explode into many small, not-so-sharp fragments when damaged. Laminated glass does not do this; it breaks, but the inner layer(s) between the glass layers holds the window together. If you want to get through a car windshield, this is why you end up needing a saw rather than a hammer.
Due to new regulation that aims to reduce the number of drivers ejected from vehicles during crashes, some manufacturers have been switching to use laminated glass for side and rear windows.
This may be entirely rational if the number of casualties avoided in those cases exceeds the number of cases where escape is hindered (which is almost certainly the case as being ejected from the vehicle is very strongly correlated with serious injury or death, and drowning deaths represent basically half of one percent of deaths in road traffic accidents), but many people don't like to hear about good risk tradeoffs and want impossible global improvements.