Your ice scraper may finally be able to get rid of the work of the windshield.

Written by Rob Wilger | Published 7:30 PM, December 20, 2019

If you live in a cold and snowy place and own a car, now is a good time to consider how your vehicle will cope with harsh temperatures and environments. For example, you might want to consider winter tires: they rely on a rubber compound designed to stay softer and help you better grip in the cold.

Then there are your wiper blades. If they cannot effectively clear the windshield, it will drive you crazy and even put you in danger. Just like winter tires should be soft, keeping flexible rubber wiper blades-and following the shape of the windshield when moving-will work better.

This is part of the idea behind the innovative wiper blades designed by the new Lincoln Aviator. Optional equipment contains two useful technologies that should make them more effective and make you think, "I wish I had these."

First, they are heated. Lincoln's wiper engineer Jeffrey Johnson explained that each blade contains a thin metal foil connected to a power source. The metal element is resistive, which means that when current passes through it, it heats up and sits tightly on top of the rubber to allow heat to escape. "It keeps the rubber soft, so it can conform to the shape of the glass," Johnson said. "This greatly improves your wiping ability."

According to Lincoln, the heater can melt frost and snow that might otherwise accumulate, and can help deicing the windshield in four minutes. When replacing, the customer does not need to replace the entire wiper blade with the heating strip: the rubber part can be replaced by simply sliding out.

Lincoln automates the entire system, so the heating element will cycle on and off for different lengths of time according to the degree of cold outside. For example, when the outdoor temperature is between 41 and 23 degrees, the heater turns on for 20 seconds every minute. Between 23 and 5 degrees, they last 30 seconds at a time. When it is -13 or colder, they will stay on.

The second function Lincoln added is the way the vehicle handles spraying windshield wiper fluid. Usually, every time you pull the handle, your car will spray a blue arc all over the place, usually from a nozzle tucked into the hood. But in the 2020 Aviator, the system forces the liquid to drain through 38 or 42 laser-cut holes on the blade itself (there are four on the driver's wiper) and spray directly onto the glass. According to Lincoln, this has reduced the amount of fluid used in vehicles by 50%. (Lincoln is not alone: ​​Mercedes has a heated windshield wiper system that can also deploy liquid through laser-cut holes in the blade.)

On a visual level, the configuration ejected from the blade can produce strange effects. "It's a bit weird because you can't see any washer fluid, but you do see a clean windshield," Johnson said.

"It does improve the customer's vision and reaction time," he pointed out, partly because you didn't soak the entire windshield with a liquid that temporarily blocks the view.

Technology like this, regardless of its biological comfort, reminds you to properly maintain your car, especially in winter. The vehicle you are driving may not have a beautiful self-heating windshield, so please make sure your wipers and liquids are in good working condition. Use winter tires when it's cold (not all seasons) and check if your headlights are also operable.

Rob Verger is the technical editor of Popular Science. He covers aviation, military, transportation, security and other complex technical topics. He graduated from Columbia School of Journalism and wrote for the Boston Globe, Newsweek, Daily Beast, CJR, VICE News, and other publications. Contact the author here.

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