Posted on Wednesday 27 February 2008
Carmakers are always looking at ways of lowering costs and one of the easiest ways is to replace complicated systems with simpler ones. An Italian design company has now come up with an innovative wiperless windshield, which it plans to showcase on a new concept car at next month’s Geneva Motor Show. The new concept is the Fioravanti Hidra, which like many of the designs planned for the upcoming show was designed to showcase next-generation alternative energy powertrains and flexible vehicle architectures.
The windshield on the Hidra relies on aerodynamics and a special self-cleaning coating on the glass that repels water. The coating not only blocks harmful U.V. rays from the sun but it also features ‘nano dust,’ a substance that gives the screen the ability to “push” dirt away to the edges of the glass surface. Once the car is moving at sufficient speed, any accumulated material is simply blown away. According to its developers, the technology could feature in production cars within the next five years.
The new Hidra is in fact just one out of a number of concepts from Italy’s famed design houses and coachbuilders headed to Geneva. Other cars include the Pininfarina Sintesi, IED Chicane and a Giugiaro Concept.
My question would be, how does this system work in stop and go traffic at rushhour? No movement equals no cleaning and after five minutes one would not be able to see anything.
Craig, I think, that when this technology becomes reality it will definitely be combined with back-up wiper - only you will use it much less.
Sounds a lot like Rain-X to me. Let’s just hope the coating doesn’t need to be replaced as frequently or this will become quite hazardous!
James, if they were trying to reduce costs, wouldn’t designing a back-up wiper still have the same cost and still make it complicated because it would still need to be there. Ultimately, you aren’t replacing anything.
This sounds like a great idea for the side windows, which have no wiper of their own!
In the US, we have to worry about salt spray from melted snow on the roadways getting sprayed by tires as cars travel down the road. How would this bit of engineering deal with a wet, sticky, chemical that dries to windshields due to the defroster use?
where is the fifth door???