The British Automotive Company, McLaren Group, is aiming to put an end to the need for windscreen wipers. Once implemented, car owners will no longer have to replace the rubber blades that are prone to sticking to the glass during winter months. Instead a simple flip of the switch would keep the glass free of rain, snow and any other things that would be prone to stick, even bugs.
Using a high frequency sound wave much like those used in military aircraft the change has been estimated to cost a mere £10 to manufacture into a new vehicle. The option on a new car could be very attractive to drivers that often find the sound and movement of the wipers distracting.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Frank Stephenson, chief designer at McLaren Group, commented that the change to drop the traditional wipers would eliminate the weight of the wiper motor and streamline the design possibilities of the windscreen. This could lead to better fuel consumption levels.
The traditional windshield wiper was invented by a woman in 1903 named Mary Anderson. Her original patent described the wiper as a “window cleaning device”. Later different mechanisms for controlling the wiper system were invented. Patents range from how the wipers are controlled, how they were aligned, their ability to cover more area as well as the ability for them to work automatically versus manually and intermittently.
The change for McLaren in adapting the sound wave technology to consumer cars is not yet in production and no target date was given.
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