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Next-Gen Windshield Wipers To Be Based On Jet Fighter "Forcefield" Tech
cartechboy writes "It looks like the old-school windshield wiper is about to be replaced by new technology — but not until 2015. British car-maker McLaren is apparently developing a new window cleaning system that is modeled from fighter jet tech. The company isn't revealing exactly how it will work, but the idea comes from the chief designer simply asking a military source why you don't see wipers on jets as they land. Experts expect McClaren to use constantly active, high-frequency sound waves outside the range of human hearing that will effectively create a force field across a car's windshield to repel water, ice insects and other debris. Similar sound waves are used by dentists to remove plaque from teeth."
This wiper also keeps lions away.
so it also drives cats, dogs and other animals crazy in 100m radius?
Technology only develops from space, not military stuff.
Jet shaped vehicles may be required to use this device.
This idea appeared (invented in?) The Ghost From The Grand Banks by Arthur C.Clarke.
It seems like every time I buy a windshield wiper anymore it is trashed within a few days. There's a lot of players out there in the windshield wiper industry that peddle garbage, and it is hard to know which one is good.
Will the vibrations exacerbate the crack?
What happens when its raining heavily, and a vehicle going the other way hits a puddle, and dumps a massive wave of water on your windshield? What happens when its full inch of heavy slush? I'd say its a nice addition on top of regular wipers, but I'm very skeptical about replacing them.
You could just buy a bottle of Rain-X.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Surely someone at the automotive companies has already tested a tiny, high pressure air nozzle that sweeps across from just below the windscreen. It's nice that McLaren is driving new technology, but face it, our cars could be much better. The issue is always budgets, and the $1 here, $4 there for better components supposedly adds up to automobiles costing 2-4x what they currently do. At least that is what the accountants that turn down the engineers ideas say. Sometimes that is true, sometimes I want to yell bullshit as I whack someone upside the head with a baseball bat.
Why not use a superhydrophobic nano coating?
I remember another car manufacturer was testing this in the late '90s-early 2000s, Mercedes IIRC?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Works like a champ!
Fido says fuck-off at the next car ride - and trips to the vet? Oh those will be howlarious.
"Stephenson didn’t go into detail but explained that an ultrasonic transducer on the screen could send 30 kHz waves of ultrasound across the surface and repel all debris--even snow and insects."
vs.
"The hearing ability of a dog is dependent on breed and age, though the range of hearing is usually around 40 Hz to 60 kHz (60,000 Hz)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_range
Is this why my dog howls when he drives my McClaren in the rain? I always thought he howled for the sheer fun of it!
There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about. -- John von Neumann
Similar sound waves are used by dentists to remove plaque from teeth.
Um, I hear those sound waves just fine (high frequency sensitive). My dentist had to give up using it on me.
If this sounds anything like that horrid sonic plaque cleaner, I'm going to have to move to my zombie apocalypse survival compound in Montana. Too bad, I was saving it for the actual zombie apocalypse.
-- I have monkeys in my pants.
I, for one, welcome our new ice insect overlords.
Jet fighters use bleed air to clear the windscreens, not high frequency sound. The pilot just has to remember to use it sparingly on the ground, or the windscreen melts, which most pilots agree is a bad thing...and mechanics get really ticked off replacing them. Another way to clean the windscreens is a quick shot of JP-8 from your nearby in-flight refueler (booms works best), but you didn't hear that from me...
Impetuous! Homeric!
As one who drives through regions (think the U.P. of Michigan for U.S.'ers), I am curious as to how it will "fix" the bugs getting smeared on the windscreen.
For maximum effect, apply JP-8 and scorching hot exhausts simultaneously!
i suppose they can clean the tires at the stop light
This sounds like it could be incredibly expensive to fix/replace. What happens if one of the frequency generators goes out? Will current repair shops be able to service the vehicles? How precise does the alignment have to be? What about microfractures?
Not having to deal with water and snow would be nice, but only if it doesn't interfere with/cause more maintenance....
"Our goal each year should be to increase the number of goals we set for ourselves!"
> . . . to repel water, ice insects and other debris . . .
Great. I just hate it when those ice insects hit my windshield.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
but passenger aircraft have very standard motorized windscreen wipers, really low tech...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pIasu8TdhA&hd=1
Similar sound waves are used by dentists to remove plaque from teeth.
Having had one of these sound wave plaque removing treatments, I can assure you they do not work as well as the analog method. While the physical scraping might be less enjoyable, their results are far superior.
I'm not the only one with this opinion. Others I have spoken with say the same thing and you can use your favorite search engine to see similar comments from a multitude of people.
But just like mp3s, automatic transmissions, flappy-paddle gear changers and photography, to name just a few, the far superior analog method will eventually be replaced by the inferior method and people will think we're making progress.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
and into the hangar they go for maintenance, with pigeon shit soon covering the entire outside surface
Ok so a set of replacement wipers costs me $20 at the local autoparts store. I replace my wipers once a year, and if something happens that I need to replace one, in an hour (including driving to the autoparts store) I'm all set. No special training, tools, diagnostic computers, calibrating equipment etc etc.. required.
Now I'm going to install something that when (not if) it breaks will cost me hundreds if not thousands of dollars to fix.
Let McLaren install these in their $1m cars aimed at the rich and famous. It's not like you see Ferraris and Lamborghini's driving in the rain anyhow.
automatic transmissions, flappy-paddle gear changers
What's the difference? Any type of mechanical multi-speed transmission is a kluge. You don't find them in trains, planes, ships, power stations, etc. On the road? Get a Tesla.
In our avionics shop one prankster would set (after hooking up a concealed tweeter) the audio oscillator just above the range of normal hearing and enjoy the reactions from those who still had some of their high freq sensitivity left.
His other trick was telling noobs the black plastic urinal cup on OV-10 Broncos was an "auxiliary interphone" and having them speak into it while listening for side tone.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
"Inferior" and "Superior" are subjective. It might give an inferior cleaning but still be a superior product for other reasons. My Nook Color is a technically inferior product to my mother's Nexus 10, but I consider it a superior product because it costs significantly less. Likewise, my car has an inferior engine when comparing power, but it's far superior in terms of mileage. Canada may be inferior because they invented Justin Bieber, but they're actually superior because they got rid of him.
That is going to be useful in the UK if they make it just a little bit stronger,free dental care
...WIPE the slate clean?
My sig has no nature
know!
Similar systems were announced in the 1980s in various popular tech rags. damn, live long enough and things just go in cycles.
http://www.google.com/patents/US4768256
This works on fighters because 1) in flight, they're always going really fast by automotive standards, and 2) their canopies are angled far into the windstream. If water can be broken free of surface tension, it will be blown away. For a car stopped in heavy rain in traffic, it probably won't do much.
Repel the deer? No. However, the splattered innards and guts of the deer you just hit will smoothly slide right off your windshield.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
I'm not the only one with this opinion. Others I have spoken with say the same thing and you can use your favorite search engine to see similar comments from a multitude of people.
Something that can be said about virtually any opinion on the Internet.
Wonder if McLaren considered putting this technology on Formula1 racing helmets to replace the tearoff strips, and to keep debris and rain off the onboard video cameras.
... they could use Rain-X. (May not repel lions.)
Will animals be able to hear it? Because I think we have more than enough noise pollution in the ocean be a shame to increase it on land too.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
/. -- The only place where the lack of comma gets more attention than the technology in the article.
Good thing this guy is already dead.
This would just be adding insult to injury. His whole life, the industry rapes his idea. Now they just toss it aside, obsolete.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
My dentist uses a pick and a spinny brush to clean my plaque. Should I change?
We need to combine it with some sort of forward-firing sonic ram, then! Just imagine if you could turn that fucking deer into a fine bloody mist just prior to impact! And then the winshield jets take over :D
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What is this blakey from tdwtf? ?
I'll tell you what happens. SOme faggot links to xkcd. Some faggot mentions linux and Stallman eating skin off his foot on camera. Gets modded to +6. THen they get redirected to the beta site.
Generaly Maclarens don't have trouble with vehicles coming the other way, and if its raining that heavily, you'd better box, and put on full wets (Of course Maclaren only take a couple of seconds to actually change the tires)
The windscreen wiper has been around since 1903, and its basic design hasn’t changed much since. Coming up with the idea was inventor Mary Anderson, who saw the need for a ‘window cleaning device’ after she saw drivers sticking their heads out of the car to see where they were going during heavy rain.
I wonder if she got rich filing lawsuits against car companies?
Good invention though, because in my personal experience sticking your head out of the window during a heavy rain doesn't significantly improve visibility.
"create a force field across a car's windshield to repel water, ice insects and other debris."
I wasn't aware of 'ice insects' until now. We have the occasional insect who I see in the winter on our snow but no 'ice insects'. Have they reported this new species to the scientific community or are they just going to repel it instead?
Have gnu, will travel.
Comments from random people. on the internet! well that settles it.
Superior is based n a series of parameters.
For longevity, consistence, and shareability, mp3(Digital media) is superior.
If you want something that's not consistent, and want to talk like a hipster douche, then analog is better for those parameters.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
IT depends on the parameter you are judging. Often they are objective.
Also, throwing you garbage out the window doesn't make you superior.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The reason jets (of all types, and most propeller aircraft as well,) don't have windshield wipers is because if you go fast enough, then the combination of airspeed and windshield angle combine to have the water just flow right up-and-over.
I could easily see a McLaren that could go fast enough for this. Too bad you can't go that speed on your local freeway or city street. (Most commercial airliners have windshield wipers for use *on the ground* taxiing to the gate/runway. Using them at speed would break them.)
This was mentioned in the opening chapters of A Ghost from Grand Banks. Smart guy that Clarke dude.
http://www.22balmoralroad.net/ http://www.tinynetworks.co.uk/
Insects depend on high-frequency sound to attract mates.
I'd hate to find my windshield suddenly covered with horny (or angry) bugs while driving, in the rain, on a dark road, on my way to the ditch, picking up a few unwanted, unexpected pedestrians, who were waiting for a bus...
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