You know how all cars are starting to have touchscreens instead of buttons? It’s gonna keep happening, and someday the whole dashboard will just be one big, greasy screen. But check this out, General Motors has come up with a way to fix the annoying problem of always having to wipe off fingerprints. They just patented a new screen design that can magically erase fingerprints on its own, so you won’t have to keep cleaning it with your shirt sleeve.
The enhanced screens would incorporate an extra violet pixel that operates like ultraviolet light, remaining unseen by human eyes to ensure the colors and images displayed on the screen are not affected. The touchscreen would additionally feature an imperceptible photocatalyst screen coating intended to trigger a chemical reaction by absorbing certain light wavelengths. According to General Motors’ patent, the photocatalyst proposed is metal-oxide-based and interacts with ultraviolet radiation in sunlight. However, since numerous vehicles employ window tinting to maintain a cool, dark interior, the violet pixels would initiate the photocatalyst’s reaction instead.
Basically, when your car is just sitting there in the dark, or when you start a cleaning cycle during the day, these special violet pixels on the screen kick in. They turn on this thing called a photocatalyst in the screen coating, which uses moisture in the air to break down all the nasty stuff left behind by your fingers and any food or grease from your last drive-thru run. It’s like magic!
Once the chemical reaction comes to a halt and everything dries out, the greasy smudges and fingerprints disappear, leaving a clean screen, ready for use.
We don’t know for sure when General Motors is gonna start offering these self-cleaning screens in their cars, or even if they will at all. Right now, they just have a patent on the idea, and they haven’t said anything about actually making it a real thing. They could start doing it in a few years, or they might not do it at all. Who knows!
I don’t have a car but I look forward to that technology especially on my phone or laptop, that’s for sure.
