The Laughable & Ugly Wiper

The WIper


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Ogre

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Think thin vertical bar when folded flat provide slim profile. The left side, outer facing when folded flat, can be made to direct water reducing icing.

While I do not think we see final iteration, I would bet the secret design is 95% committed
You should probably put the lube joke at the end of your post so people will read the whole thing.

Tesla does have a patent on a wiper which is powered in one direction and regenerates power in the reverse direction with the force of the wind. So the idea of a lay flat wiper is not that far out there.
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Space monkey

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I image you may not even need the wiper (laws aside) . If the airflow over the hood and windshield is not turbulent (smooth transitions between parts as seems the case in photos), the water may just stream off like in aircraft.
I bet it 1) comes off easily, and 2) stows nicely somewhere for the random time when you do need it.
 

Ogre

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I image you may not even need the wiper (laws aside) . If the airflow over the hood and windshield is not turbulent (smooth transitions between parts as seems the case in photos), the water may just stream off like in aircraft.
I bet it 1) comes off easily, and 2) stows nicely somewhere for the random time when you do need it.
Autopilot/ FSD will probably go on strike if you remove the wiper. The car uses it to clean the windshield cameras.
 
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Mr. Keys

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The lost aerodynamics alone will also likely cost every buyer a few hundred bucks over the course of ownership.
 

Ogre

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The lost aerodynamics alone will also likely cost every buyer a few hundred bucks over the course of ownership.
The wiper is mostly inline with the flow of air. It’s not likely to affect aero much at all.

If this were the case, Tesla would likely make a much bigger effort to tuck them in.

Lower aero leads to lower range which means they have to spend more on batteries to hit their range numbers. Batteries are expensive.
 


Space monkey

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Autopilot/ FSD will probably go on strike if you remove the wiper. The car uses it to clean the windshield cameras.
I guess the reality is, no matter what, you still have to be able to get grime off when it isn’t raining... So much for my idea ?
While people were first poopooing the looks of CT, you could see it influencing other car makers designs pretty early on. This may be the same. The BAW might just be the next new thing, just like electric cars and reusable rockets... ?
 

HaulingAss

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Feel free to participate in my biased poll. :) My take is for Tesla to re-engineer and do the wiper properly and hide it, especially since they are going to have to figure it out for the roadster anyway. Doing it properly would take this from a laughable attribute to an instant selling point of Tesla engineering when properly hidden. I also very very much wouldn't want to look at that thing all the time when I'm driving. 100% they could figure this out before all the other things that are holding up the launch would be ready.
Why didn't you include the option:

Keep that beautiful and massively masculine giant wiper?

At least you admit your poll is biased.
 

HaulingAss

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I think the larger-than-average A-pillars are part of the reason Teslas perform so well in the roof crush test.

The A-pillar in my S allowed a running deer to make it from a hundred feet off to the side of the road, all the way to the edge of the road before it emerged from behind the A-pillar to where I could see it. By then it was too late for Bambi. Bambi died a sudden death before spiraling down the highway in front of me. This was over 2 months ago, and I still don't have my car back from the repair shop. :(
I can see the deer running towards the road well before it was obstructed by the A-pillar and, yes I know, the camera has a different view than the driver. But I'm hyperaware of deer due to having hit one and having a near miss of another on a motorcycle and it's not pretty. The only time I don't see them in time is when they are standing motionless by the side of the road and decide to bolt last minute. Or when they climb up a steep roadside embankment while out-of-sight and appear on the shoulder immediately before impact.
 


charliemagpie

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Is it possible the wiper will retract to about 1/3 of its length ?
 

HaulingAss

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I don’t think any of us can answer that well.

It may be that there is enough drag from having that wiper gap that this makes more sense from a pure get-er-done perspective.
^This^

The windshield wiper gap creates much more drag than a vertical wiper would. This might seem inconsequential, but it would make the truck more expensive to purchase and operate because the added drag would require a slightly larger battery to compensate. Then the truck weighs more and has that much less cargo capacity. These issues compound with one another. So, it's better to just eliminate the drag in the first place because it offers more value to the consumer than meets the eye.

Sleek is good. Aero drag is the major consumer of battery energy, optimizing for lowest aero drag pays big dividends. Lucid understands this (they are run by an engineer) but legacy auto dismisses additions to aero drag as minor and unimportant.
 

HaulingAss

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Honestly, Tesla should just have the hood pop up slightly when you turn on the wipers, which would enable the wipers to move up from that slot and wipe as normal. Honestly doesn't seem like a massive engineering challenge. Would be a huge miss if not implemented.
That's not a bad idea but it comes with major engineering challenges and added expense because the hood is part of the crumple zone. It would likely require double the number of crash tests to test it in the hood raised mode. There would be significant cost with ensuring the hood transfered crash energy in a similar manner regardless of position. And the frunk seal would need to be re-designed to ensure it didn't leak when the wiper was on. I would not be happy if I had to lift a secondary frunk cover to use the frunk.

All-in-all, it makes the erect wiper solution look likes it puts the exclamation point on "KISS", keep it simple, stupid!
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