The other day I was driving and I must have hit over 2 million bugs in a 15 minute period. The wipers merely made it worse. I had to pull over and clean off the windshield..
Now..what if we had a built-in bug swatter that could detect the bugs and swat them away before they hit the windshield? That would save a lot of time and keep your car looking new.
It would probably be a very expensive option. You would need some sort of radar that would be able to detect the bug and some kind of arm with the standard flyswatter end to come out of the hood so fast that it would be able to swat the bug and not interfere with your vision.
I envision the 2nd generation devices to be lasers..-- rockyed, Aug 08 2006 Or destroy them with lasers. Insect_20Ack-AckAnd occasionally blind oncoming drivers. [ldischler, Aug 08 2006] I'm not sure... http://m-al.com/bugswatter.html...back to the drawing-board, perhaps? [m_Al_com, Aug 10 2006] RADAR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar [BJS, Aug 10 2006] I'd say a robotic hand with a set of chopsticks: "The car that catch fly with chopstick, accomplish anything!"-- Jinbish, Aug 08 2006 This is far too complicated. Couldn't you change the angle of the windscreen so that the airflow carried most of the bugs over it before they hit? And then, as a backup system... keep windscreen spiders tethered to your wing mirrors.
The stickyness of their threads would keep them from being blown off, and a small gap between the windscreen glass and the windscreen web would allow a vibration in the web to alert the spider to an impact, in the manner of a normal web. They wouldn't interfere with visibility much because of their patented transparent chitin, and they would scare the hell out of anyone trying to stick a parking ticket to your car.-- pertinax, Aug 08 2006 How about a steady blast of air up over the windscreen? Might help keep the rain off too.-- DrCurry, Aug 08 2006 The simple answer is of course, a second windscreen. Bugs and detritus hit the first, leaving the second one completely pristine.-- zen_tom, Aug 08 2006 Like this? (link)-- m_Al_com, Aug 10 2006 I don't think RADAR would be fast and sensitive enough.-- BJS, Aug 10 2006 Just have a few hungry bats fly directly in front of your car, it’s just like your idea only biological.-- BJS, Aug 10 2006 I like your illustration, [m_Al_com].-- normzone, Aug 10 2006 "The simple answer is of course, a second windscreen. Bugs and detritus hit the first, leaving the second one completely pristine."
I was thinking to have a thin sheet of a clear material that would stick to the windshield. It would be cheap instead of a second windscreen and if you wanted to remove the bugs instantly, you just remove the material, throw it away, and stick a new one on.-- runnerfajita, Aug 10 2006 Thats exactly what Formula 1 Drivers have on their Visors [rf] I like the idea of bats tethered to the front of the car, gobbling up any insects that fly their way, even if it isnt practical!-- The_Englishman_Abroad, Aug 10 2006 Yes..you guys are great. m-Al-com, that's some great artwork. I would keep the swatter the same color as the car in order to keep to keep the stares to a minimum.
Obviously we can't have a swatter and spiders and bats, so I'm thinking the swatter will be on the lx version and the spiders for the dx and bats for the ex.-- rockyed, Aug 12 2006 Thanks, folks. :)-- m_Al_com, Aug 14 2006 random, halfbakery