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Nanotechnology-Powered Wiper-Less Windshield

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the plenty-of-room-at-the-bottom dept.

fab writes "Italian car designer Leonardo Fioravanti (who worked for Pininfarina for a number of years) has developed a car prototype without windshield wipers. This amazing technological feat is made possible thanks to the use of 4 layers of glass modified using nanotechnology. The first layer filters the sun and repels the water. The second layer, using 'nano-dust' is able to push dirt to the side. The third layer acts as a sensor that activates the second layer when it detects dirt, while the fourth layer is a conductor of electricity to power this complex mechanism. I haven't been able to find an English article, but there is always a google powered translation of the Italian article."

14 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Durability by contraba55 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is this any stronger than a standard windshield, or will the rogue baseball do it in?

    1. Re:Durability by calebt3 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      First things first: Is is as effective as windshield wipers?

    2. Re:Durability by sumdumass · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm curious if it can even be used in the US. All windshields here have to be tempered safety glass and they place a shatter container around it to stop glass pellets from flying in your face if it is ever damages.

      If you have ever seen a car accident that busted the windshield, you will probably notice that the glass might be shattered by it is all contained and most likely can all be removed in one piece. Now the side windows and possibly the back window, they usually just shatter and fall in a pile of a thousand or more pieces. I'm wondering how this would stack up to this or if it would be part of the laminating process. I think it might be a good side view window and mirror replacement though. It was so cold the other night, road spray kept freezing my mirror and windows up and I couldn't see my blind spots nor could I back into the driveway without cleaning both of them off.

  2. Permeable first layer? by s4m7 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe I'm stupid, and being your typical /.er I didn't RTFA, but how does a second layer deal with dirt? Is the first layer permeable? That's just... weird.

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    1. Re:Permeable first layer? by aggspball3r · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Maybe I'm stupid, and being your typical /.er I didn't RTFA, but how does a second layer deal with dirt? Is the first layer permeable? That's just... weird.


      DUH! it's series of tubes just like the internet!
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  3. C.O.P.S. by MikeUW · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Cool - this totally reminds me of that episode of C.O.P.S, when a chemical mishap produces some sort of dirt-repelling cloth that the Big Boss uses to make a super clean suit. I don't remember if there was anything else to the plot though...

  4. Re:Dare I ask... by muridae · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Was there something terribly wrong with wipers to begin with?
    Yeah, they don't make wipers for motorcycle helmets.
  5. Re:Windshield Dust by iamhassi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "snow? I challenge your nanotech with my ICE SCRAPER!"

    surely they planned for that, right? How much water can these windshields repel? Semi drives by and throws tons of water on my windshield and it'll automatically clear it instantly at highway speeds? My wipers can hardly keep up, i have my doubts about this technology.

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  6. Re:Dare I ask... by timeOday · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You beat me to it. I am really curious whether it will work for motorcycle visors, side mirrors, and maybe the windows on my office so they don't dry all spotted with dirt :)

  7. Re:Dare I ask... by PapayaSF · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Was there something terribly wrong with wipers to begin with?

    Apparently they weren't expensive enough.

    Good point and funny reply, and this seems to be a good spot to reveal one of the great secrets of auto maintenance: you can sharpen your windshield wipers and make them last many times longer. All you need is a small piece of fine sandpaper. Get the wiper blade wet (if it's not already), fold the sandpaper into a V shape, and pull it along the edge a number of times. You want to take off the stiff and cracked edge and expose a fresh layer of rubber. I get extra years out of blades this way, though YMMV.

    I use a little gadget I bought at a flea market for a dime decades ago, a little piece of sheet aluminum that's mostly handle to hold an inch-long groove like two sides of an inside-out triangular file. Forget the "100 mile-per-gallon carburetor," it's the windshield wiper blade sharpener that's my candidate for great suppressed invention.

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  8. The Real News by jeremiahbell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The real news is that Google just dropped an almost perfect machine translation of an Italian article and nobody noticed. I surfed all over the articles website amazed buy one article after another, not by their content, but by the translation. Hasn't anybody else noticed? Perhaps it is a fruition of Google scanning and comparing those thousands of U.N. Documents they said they would use a year or two ago.

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    1. Re:The Real News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I do not know how you could call this perfect. The first four words of this article are translated wrong. It is impressive because the machine translation can do, but until a program is able to understand the meaning behind the words, things will always sound funny. Incidentally, this comment was translated from Italian to English and English to return and it is surprising how little has changed in the process.

  9. Makes absolutely no sense by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 2, Interesting
    At first glance this article makes absolutely no sense.

    A top layer that repels water. Swell. But how long does that layer last when subjected to your typical environment?

    A second layer of microscopic dust that somehow pushes dirt to the side. Can anybody fathom any mechanism for this?

    A third layer that's a sensor for dust? WTF?

    A fourth conductive layer?

    One possible mechanism might be that the fourth layer is charged up to several thousand volts, charging the unwanted dust, then it reverses polarity, repelling the dust. Which might have a chance of working at 0% humidity and very fine dust.

    Also note that the gratuitous reference to nanotechnology, which in this context probably refers to what we normally call "powdered ingredients".

  10. Re:Windshield Dust by Non-Huffable+Kitten · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well now, have _YOU_ ever found yourself homeless (...) No I haven't, but I have my parents to thank for that.

    I wouldn't have such a big problem with "career bums" if they didn't instigate so much shit in the first place. Bumming change at the intersection isn't going to turn their life around. It probably isn't. I was mainly questioning your statement that making mistakes makes a person "worthless" and undeserving of help.
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