- Rivian has utilized for a patent to warmth the headlight lens to make winter driving safer.
- The patent drawings present a resistive outer aspect utilizing carbon nanotubes to warmth the lens.
- There are presently no manufacturing automobiles with heated headlight lenses.
Each winter, Rivian homeowners take to the boards and Reddit to complain about ice buildup on their vehicles’ headlights that drastically reduces effectiveness. LEDs don’t emit sufficient warmth to soften snow and ice, so it stays on the lens till you scrape it off. In some circumstances you need to do that each few miles. Rivian has an answer for that drawback, although: heated headlight lenses.
Rivian filed a patent for heated headlight lenses in June 2023. The patent was made public in December final 12 months. The doc reveals that Rivian is contemplating including a heating aspect that sends warmth throughout the complete lens because of embedded carbon nanotubes. This resolution was chosen in order to not hinder gentle going by way of the lens. Conventional digital defrosters—just like the one you most likely have in your rear window—layer heating parts in opaque traces, barely lowering visibility.
Picture by: USPTO
You should purchase aftermarket headlights with a heating perform, however they’re normally spherical, making them arduous to combine with most trendy, angular housings. We don’t think about Rivian homeowners can be prepared to combine an extra set of headlights, although, they usually need those on the truck to stay efficient in all climate circumstances.
Rivian may have solved the issue the old style approach by putting in heated nozzles to spray the headlight clear, however the heated lenses seem to be a extra elegant resolution. Utilizing conventional resistive heating parts embedded within the lens can be a extra easy, cheaper resolution, so it will likely be attention-grabbing to see what Rivian truly places into manufacturing.
The issue isn’t restricted to Rivian, although. All new vehicles with LED headlights endure from related points, in addition to fogging on the within of the headlights that doesn’t go away. Halogen or xenon lights run a lot hotter, so in the event you depart them on lengthy sufficient, they may start to soften snow and ice on the outside and get rid of condensation inside.
LEDs are the go-to alternative for many trendy vehicles as a result of they use significantly much less electrical energy than different kinds of lighting, emit simply as a lot gentle and provides producers extra management over the place the sunshine goes and the way it’s dispersed. For electrical automobiles, the massive draw is LEDs’ decrease electrical energy consumption, which doesn’t considerably have an effect on vary.
The patent drawings submitted by Rivian to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace uncovered by Motor Authority present a headlight with the standard Rivian design, so it’s unclear if it’s meant for an R1, R2 or R3. If it places this in a manufacturing automobile, it will likely be the second producer to supply this in a sequence mannequin, though opponents will probably catch up. We all know no automobiles with factory-fitted heated headlights, however you will get aftermarket Oculus projector headlights with heated lenses for the Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator. Let’s hope they’re out there quickly on one other set of boxy, off-road merchandise.
