It has been a busy couple of weeks for Elon Musk as he’s had cameo appearances on Rick and Morty and the announcement of the bizarre Cybertruck. Now, Tesla is planning to reinvent another part of the car-driving experience. Earlier this year, the automotive company filed a patent application with the name “Pulsed Laser Cleaning of Debris Accumulated on Glass Articles in Vehicles and Photovoltaic Assemblies.” Now, the patent has become public and the resulting invention sounds like something out of science fiction. Literal laser beams to clean your car window if you can believe it. If the Cybertruck spectacle proved anything, it is that Musk and his company are very obsessed with some very strange visions of the future. This patent falls right in line with something that wouldn’t have been out of the realm of possibility in dime novels and radio serials of the past. But, weirdly enough, it is an invention of our own times.
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The patent was credited to a Staff Scientific and Industrial Imaging Specialist at Tesla named Phiroze Dalal. He described the invention like this:
“A cleaning system for a vehicle includes a beam optics assembly that emits a laser beam to irradiate a region on a glass article of the vehicle, debris detection circuitry that detects debris accumulated over the region, and control circuitry. The control circuitry calibrates a set of parameters associated with the laser beam emitted from the beam optics assembly based on detection of the debris accumulated over the region on the glass article, controls an exposure level of the laser beam on the debris accumulated based on calibration of the set of parameters associated with the laser beam, wherein the exposure level is controlled based on pulsing the laser beam at a calibrated rate that limits penetration of the laser beam to a depth that is less than a thickness of the glass article, and removes the debris accumulated over the region on the glass article using the laser beam.”
Now, if that seems a bit wild, keep in mind that the entire Internet spent the better part of an evening clowning the Cybertruck. Tesla says the vehicle has “better utility than a truck with more performance than a sports car.” Among the standout moments around the reveal were a window breaking after having a steel ball thrown at it and a random ATV that is an option for the truck. But, one joke that just seemed to catch fire on Twitter and elsewhere was that the car looked like it belonged in a Playstation 1 game or perhaps a Nintendo 64. There are loads of funny photoshops out there that really capture how surreal the entire experience is. Our future is ever-changing but it looks like Tesla will be contributing strange ideas for automotive design as long as its doors remain open.
