Nanotechnology-Powered Wiper-Less Windshield

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."

Mama mia thatsa cleana windshielda!

[MeditationSensation (1121241)]

Now I want one that has adjustable levels of tinting for privacy and blocking out the sun.

Re:

[chill (34294)]

Look here:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=35202 [google.com]

Ice?

[DebateG (1001165)]

That's pretty cool if you live in a climate when your main problem is dirt / rain. But what about ice/sleet/freezing rain, which is the bane of my existence now that I'm living in the Midwest.

Re:

[morcheeba (260908)]

Exactly. It's got to be able to move a large quantity of slush off a windshield when the truck next to you hits a puddle and suddenly throws a gallon on your windshield.

Ice isn't the end of it..

[Sparky McGruff (747313)]

If you're in a warmer climate, try bird-crap and bugs. Try driving down I-5 from Redding to Sacramento CA in the late spring sometime. Bugs coming at you like a freakin' hailstorm. Grasshoppers, dragonflies... Big juicy bugs that leave splats. Or, if you're relay lucky, you might get hit by a stray tomato flying off a truck. Let's see a nano-wiper sweep away that!

Re:

[cyfer2000 (548592)]

And Washington, D. C. [cnn.com]

Re:Ice?

[edwardpickman (965122)]

I installed a Trunk Monkey with a scraper. I also got the accessory crowbar for those annoying hip hop fans with a sub woofer next to me.

Your so lucky

[Plazmid (1132467)]

You're so lucky, I live in Texas where it gets so hot, it rains molten metal. If we are lucky, it rains solid metal, in the winter of course. Well, I have to go, its night now, which means that the temperature is low enough to venture out of the life support module to repair the ceramic radiators.

Durability

[contraba55 (1217056)]

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

Re:

[calebt3 (1098475)]

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

Re:

[sumdumass (711423)]

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

5 Layers?

[weighn (578357)]

so how long until an executive at a rival company demands that they produce one with 5 layers?
One more is always better, just ask Gillette and anyone with a guitar amp [wikipedia.org].

Re:

[Boogaroo (604901)]

Oh yeah? Well ours has SIX layers and a FREE bonus layer on the inside to get rid of fingerprints and dog-nose smudges.

Re:

[jay-be-em (664602)]

And cite them too.

In before grammar/spelling nazis.

Permeable first layer?

[s4m7 (519684)]

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.

Dare I ask...

[Wuhao (471511)]

Was there something terribly wrong with wipers to begin with?

Re:Dare I ask...

[CastrTroy (595695)]

Apparently they weren't expensive enough.

Re:Dare I ask...

[PapayaSF (721268)]

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.

Re:Dare I ask...

[ShaunC (203807)]

Was there something terribly wrong with wipers to begin with?

They inevitably wear out, lose curvature, smear, start squeaking, cause distraction, are a pain to replace, etc. Some more quickly than others. I bought a new car in September and realized a couple days later that I'd made a mistake going car shopping on a clear sunny day. The stock wipers work in such a fashion that after each pass, a thin film is left behind, evaporating a moment later unless the wipers are going fast enough (or the water's coming down hard enough) to prevent that. Fine during the day, or during heavy rain, but I almost had a wreck the first time I drove that car at night in a drizzle. The glare from streetlights and opposing traffic diffusing through the film left behind by the wipers made it almost impossible to see.

I've been using Rain-X for years and as long as the application is fairly fresh, it's easy to drive in the rain without wipers. I have to say, if I could get a windshield with those repellent properties built in, and the effects were proven to last, I'd happily pay a premium for it.

Re:

[Ctrl-Z (28806)]

Wow. Are you serious? I mean, "a pain to replace"? If you bought a new car, they should not be a pain to replace. It's only after they've been on for a couple of years and rusted and seized up that it's a pain to get them off without breaking them into pieces. I change mine twice a year, before and after winter. It takes me about 10-15 minutes a year to replace them, at the staggering cost of $15 per blade.

If you want to talk about stock crap, how about those tires that come with your new car? It's a

Wait.. how long?

[zippthorne (748122)]

15 minutes??

It only takes 15 minutes if you count the time it takes to drive to Autozone, which should really be amortized over the other items you're also purchasing. Or you're an auto mechanic working for a dealership doing an inspection and "saving time" by doing that wiper replacement for someone without calling first.

Of the remaining 5 minutes, maybe a minute in total is spent actually removing the assemblies (my wiper arms don't go full up like a normal car, so for me there's a trick t

Re:

[TubeSteak (669689)]

I've been using Rain-X for years and as long as the application is fairly fresh, it's easy to drive in the rain without wipers. I have to say, if I could get a windshield with those repellent properties built in, and the effects were proven to last, I'd happily pay a premium for it.

Rain-X makes windshield wiper fluid. You can pay a premium for that.
http://www.rainx.com/Products/Windshield_Washer_Fluids/De-Icer_Bug_Remover.aspx [rainx.com]

Re:Dare I ask...

[muridae (966931)]

Was there something terribly wrong with wipers to begin with?

Yeah, they don't make wipers for motorcycle helmets.

Re:Dare I ask...

[timeOday (582209)]

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 :)

What about non-water stuff?

[Spy der Mann (805235)]

Like bird poo, smashed butterflies, roadkill blood, garbage, mud, tree leaves, etc?

Will this ultimate wipeless windshield be able to clear it away?

Re:

[mother_reincarnated (1099781)]

Like bird poo, smashed butterflies, roadkill blood, garbage, mud, tree leaves, etc?

My lord man are you sure your that will be your most immediate concern at that point?

I guess it depends if your front grille and pants are made of some self cleaning nanomaterials...

Re:What about non-water stuff?

[Gumbytwo (68015)]

Maybe he's driving a Canyonero.

C.O.P.S.

[MikeUW (999162)]

Cool - this totally reminds me of that episode of C.O.P.S [wikipedia.org], 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...

Re:

[aug24 (38229)]

Ahem. Possibly sir is thinking of this [wikipedia.org]. Justin.

No more toilet paper

[TheMiddleRoad (1153113)]

Someday you'll spray nano-particles on your ass and you won't have to wipe for a whole week. Of course, you could try petroleum jelly today, but it's uncomfortable, unless you like that sort of thing.

But without windshield wipers...

[by Anonymous Coward]

So two nuns are on a road trip, when suddenly a tiny diminutive demon jumps on the hood, and plasters himself against the hood, making scary noises and faces. And the driving nun says, "Ah! What do I do?" So the passenger nun says, "Well, turn on the windshield wipers!" So the driving nun turns on the windshield wipers. But the demon just grabs on to the wipers, and now he's just going back and forth while making his scary noises and faces. And now he's agitated. So the driving nun says, "Ah! What do I do?" And the passenger nun says, "Well, turn on the windshield wiper fluid! It's filled with holy water." So the driving nun turns on the windshield wiper fluid, and it SEARS the demon, and there's all this screaming while there's a huge, thick cloud of steam. But when the smoke clears the demon is still there, going back and forth with the windshield wiper, with his flesh all seared, and now he's REALLY pissed, right? So the driver nun says, "Ah! What do I do?" The passenger nun thinks for a minute then says, "Well, show him your cross!" So the driving nun leans out the window and screams, "Get off my fuckin' hood!"

The Real News

[jeremiahbell (522050)]

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.

Makes absolutely no sense

[Ancient_Hacker (751168)]

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".

Re:Windshield Dust

[Himring (646324)]

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....

The fifth layer is a bum who skirts the windshield with a windex bottle filled with gutter water, wipes it with a clothe he found, and then you hand him some change from your pocket....

Re:Windshield Dust

[Scutter (18425)]

The fifth layer is a bum who skirts the windshield with a windex bottle filled with gutter water, wipes it with a clothe he found, and then you hand him some change from your pocket....


I'm happy to pay them *not* to crap up my windshield.

Re:Windshield Dust

[gnick (1211984)]

I'm happy to pay them *not* to crap up my windshield.

I assume that you either haven't spent much time in a large city or just give in to these folks, but that's the standard scheme. You pay the guy before he squirts your windshield so that it doesn't get crudded up. It's more blackmail/mugging than providing a service.

Re:

[Brian Gordon (987471)]

I thought they just spit on it and wiped it off with the newspaper they sleep under.

Re:

[sporkme (983186)]

Now I need one to wipe the beer I just spat all over my monitor. Thanks for that.

Re:Windshield Dust

[eonlabs (921625)]

also, I wouldn't drive it in upstate NY

snow?

I challenge your nanotech with my ICE SCRAPER!

Re:

[iamhassi (659463)]

"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.

Re:

[reboot246 (623534)]

Not to mention all the dirt, road grime, and bugs you get hit with all the time. I once ran into a swarm of bees that instantly blocked the whole windshield. Only the wipers and washer fluid combo saved me from wrecking. Can nano do bee guts?

Windshield treatments

[A nonymous Coward (7548)]

A brother-in-law talked me into applying an Amway window treatment, and I was amazed at how well it shed water. You could, and I did, drive alongside a semi at freeway speeds and the water just slipped off and out of sight. It was absolutely convincing. Its only drawback was that you had to reapply it every several weeks. At first it worked even down to 25 mph, but gradually wore off as you used wipers at slower speeds, especially if you used the washer fluid, and eventually you had to use wipers as high as, say, 50mph, at which point I would reapply it. That bottle ran out and I tried some others which worked as well.

There was also a mental adjustment period for me; water just streams up and over the car, not to the sides, and it seems so wrong to not have wipers sweeping back and forth. The streams going up the windshield were so different from what I was used to that it was distracting and somewhat headache inducing, and it took several rainstorms to get used to it. But now it's wipers that look wrong.

Until you see it from inside, it is hard to believe how well it sheds water splashed up by the semi alongside you, but it is literally almost as clear as having no water on the windshield. It made a believer out of me.

Re:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

I disagree. Personally, I think the people that use Rain-X and then complain simply didn't apply it properly. It does take some effort. I say this as someone that doesn't like driving at night because of the glare of oncoming headlights, but I've never noticed any problem with glare using Rain-X. The thing is, you absolutely have to buff it thoroughly and well after you first apply it. Put some elbow grease into it!

Re:

[camperdave (969942)]

I'm guessing it will cost more fuel. Instead of running one motor intermittently, you have to power an entire windshield, plus sensors, plus your rear view camera, plus the display unit, continuously. A silvered piece of glass doesn't use any fuel.

Great for motorcyclists/cyclists.

[gnuman99 (746007)]

No. It will cost 0. Yes, 0. Just like always-on lights we have in Canada cost, yes, 0.

The gas engine wastes so much power anyway and never runs at optimal that the so called loses are meaningless. 100HP engine can generate 100W of power without any additional fuel costs. Heck, on a bike you generate 100W of power without too much effort. You can only speak of loses with some *efficient* hybrids or electric cars. But then the windshield doesn't need to be powered all the time anyway.

Regardless, this technology may be most helpful in places where wipers are currently not used. For example, motorcycle helmets. Or cycling glasses.

Re:

[MichaelSmith (789609)]

Regardless, this technology may be most helpful in places where wipers are currently not used. For example, motorcycle helmets. Or cycling glasses.

Yeah somebody up the page [slashdot.org] was talking about something called RainX. Making the outer layer hydrophobic seems to be the main trick here.

Re:

[Yartrebo (690383)]

A 100 HP gasoline engine needs about 400W of fuel flow to make 100W of extra electrical power. That comes out to about 1 gallon per 90 hours of operation.

While it might be essentially unmeasurable in your fuel bill, so is a single 100W bulb in your electric bill. It doesn't mean that it doesn't count.

Re:

[tomhudson (43916)]

You're really wrong. Back when they first came out, and gas was, iirc, 59 cents a canadian gallon (and not the $1.24 /liter it is today - $4.91 / US gallon or $5.64 / canadian gallon),it was calculated that running lights would cost an extra $25/year in fuel consumption.

Today's running lights take less energy; however, we also drive about 50% more per annum than we did back then, so we still end up consuming at least . Of course, with the hgher price, you're now looking at annual costs easily over $100.0

Re:There's quite a good article

[Scutter (18425)]

DO NOT CLICK THE ABOVE LINK

Yeah. That oughta do it.

/shiny red CANDY button...

Re:

[vtcodger (957785)]

***use this technology on the body so I don't have to wash my car as often.***

Do WHAT to your car? Look man, If cars needed washing the dealer would do it for you before you drove the car off the lot.

And, more seriously, haven't you got better things to do with your life than wash a stupid car? Maybe, once a year, in the springtime if the car is elderly and you live in an area that uses road salt -- or a few times in midsummer if you don't get Summer rainfall. But mostly washing cars is about as fo