Tesla desires to reinvent the windshield wiper

Tesla has filed a patent software for an electromagnetically motivated windshield wiper blade, which it says could be each extra environment friendly and provide superior longevity over standard wiper motor designs. 

Quite than a motor-and-arm association sometimes discovered on new vehicles and based mostly on decades-old know-how, Tesla’s patent suggests mounting the wiper arm bases on blocks which might transfer backwards and forwards on information rails. Present working by coils within the mounting blocks would activate electromagnets, inflicting the blocks to maneuver alongside the rails in an nearly zero-friction association. Tesla’s drawings present each single and twin blades.

Tesla electromagnetic wiper patent

The patent, which was filed earlier in September and noticed by Street & Observe, describes a number of advantages of this strategy to a reasonably mundane system. For starters, this wiper design could be freed from the parasitic losses frequent in standard setups as energy is expended to supply motion of the wiper arms and elements within the motors themselves.

The electromagnetic system would additionally not want the facility required to beat friction in these elements, because the blocks on which the wipers are mounted would primarily float over the information rails, moderately than rubbing in opposition to them. 

Tesla additionally has its eyes on longevity. The shortage of friction means much less put on over time, leading to extra predictable, exact operation all through the course of the Tesla’s service life. That is particularly vital for the EV big because it plans to roll out extra superior variations of its self-driving suite, which requires glorious ahead visibility for its cameras to function successfully. 

It stays to be seen whether or not this might have a lot (if any) affect on a automobile’s energy consumption on a big scale. Actually, homeowners of Teslas in sunny California would possible see little or no profit, however we’re curious to see what else Tesla can do for methods corresponding to these which have advanced little or no since their introductions.