We're familiar with autonomous cars — but autonomous windshield wipers?

  • Swedish firm develops software to anticipate splash on windshield
  • Wipers would clean windshield as splash happens, improving visibility
  • Tech not commercially available yet but has been successfully tested

That's the idea that the Swedish-based company Semcon has in store for the very near future.

This idea stems from Semcon's own studies that have shown 61 percent of U.S. drivers feel uncomfortable overtaking heavy trucks in wet conditions. More than half of that 61 percent say it's because the result could be a sudden, heavy splash on the windshield.

"Even if it's for a short time, it's not a good feeling when you're blind. So of course if we can avoid that...” said Magnus Carlsson, area manager for Semcon in Sweden.

Carlsson says that the wiper upgrade, called ProActive Wipers, or PAW, is simply new software for wipers that uses information from the car's already existing camera, radar and rain sensors to detect a splash on a windshield and proactively wipe it.

"With those sensors, you can keep track of the surrounding vehicles, especially heavy vehicles, trucks and so on, which normally can cause big sprays or splashes around them,” Carlsson said. “Having that knowledge and combining it with the traditional rain sensor, you can create this improved functionality."

Semcon also claims that there could be other practical uses for PAW, including using the information gathered by the sensors to predict possible hydroplaning and the ability to warn other vehicles of water hazards.

As of now, PAW's patent is pending, but it has already been successfully tested in traffic. Not only can PAW already be implemented in today's existing vehicles, but Semcon says it could be even in more demand when autonomous vehicles themselves start coming to market.