What is the most boring part of your car? If we are being honest then the windshield wipers are frankly rather dull, aren’t they?
I just did a search on “the history of windshield wipers” and it led to 5 of the worst minutes of my life.
The only interesting facts I gleaned from it were as follows. Firstly, they were patented in 1903 in both the UK and the US. Secondly, intermittent wipers were created by an inventor who almost went blind when a champagne cork shot into his eye.
However, things are about to change for the better. Oh yes, before long you are going to be inviting all your friends and work colleagues to check out your system for clearing water off your windshield. Provided that you drive a McLaren race car, that is. You do? Oh good, let’s carry on then.
Jet Technology to be Used
The good people at McLaren have been thinking about streamlining their vehicles even more by using some of the technology used on jet aircraft. That sounds exciting already, doesn’t it? If I hadn’t already cleverly dampened down your expectations by wittering on about windshield wipers and flying champagne corks you might have thought that something truly exciting was on the way.
Instead, I can reveal that McLaren are thinking of using the same sort of ultrasonic wave system used to clear water and bugs off the glass of jets. Readers who rejoice in rather dull technical data will be delighted to find out that sound waves of 30 kHz will be fired across the glass. This creates a field which stops water or anything else getting onto the glass. It sounds very high tech and cutting edge but apparently the technology used in it doesn’t cost very much to implement. Maybe we’ll all have windshield wiping systems like this before too long.
What other types of existing technology would you like to see added to cars?