Touchscreens in cars are already impossible to escape, for better or for worse. Although many of us still believe that some things should continue to have a physical button, there is no denying that the market trend says otherwise.
[Instalando Android completo en el coche: analizamos el Ottocast Picasou 2]
Even the cheapest cars include at least one screen on the dashboard, where functions such as climate control, the navigator or Android Auto apps are housed. And that means you’re going to be constantly touching that screen, filling it with fingerprints.
The solution against fingerprints on screens
Now at General Motors they think they’ve found the solution, and it’s smarter than you think, because they share Gizmodo. Instead of just including a cleaner and a microfiber cloth with the purchase of the car, engineers used the screen itself to remove dirt trapped on the glass.
The new GM-patented screen displays pixels of red, green, and blue, like everyone else (that’s where RGB, Red, Green, Blue comes from); but also, it shows an extra pixel of ultraviolet light, which is invisible to the human eye and therefore, we will not see that it lights up when we use the screen.
The screen has ultraviolet pixels in addition to the typical red, green and blue pixels
The display glass is coated with a metal oxide photocatalyst, which reacts chemically when certain wavelengths are applied to it. So when the screen is turned on and displays the pixels of ultraviolet light, the product reacts and, using the water from the ambient humidity, breaks down the material and the oily residues that we leave on the screen.
When the chemical reaction ends and the product dries, only specks of dust remain, which fall off on their own. Ok, this solution doesn’t destroy dirt, it just changes its shape, but it’s much easier to wipe with a dusting cloth once in a while, than to clean dirt from screens.
For now, this breakthrough is just a patent that has yet to be implemented in a commercial car. As always with patents, it’s unclear if GM will use it on its cars; We hope that they will at least allow this technology to other brands, because the GM brands (Chevrolet, Cadillac) have not sold cars in Europe for a while.
You may be interested
Follow the topics that interest you
