Fashionable LED headlights have an issue: They’re brilliant, compact, and energy-efficient, however they do not generate as a lot warmth as HID or halogen lights. Which means they’re extra prone to accumulate a coating of snow, ice, or moisture that may disrupt illumination. Rivian seems to be engaged on an answer.
In a patent software filed with america Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO), Rivian lays out a design for heated LED headlight lenses. That doc was filed by Rivian on Jun. 21, 2023, however solely revealed by the USPTO on Dec. 26, 2024.
Rivian heated headlight patent picture
Rivian’s design depends on a layer of carbon nanotube materials—so named as a result of it is compromised of tube-shaped lattices of carbon atoms lower than a nanometer in diameter—added to the outer lens of a headlight. Carbon nanotubes are identified to have good thermal conductivity, which could be the rationale behind Rivian’s alternative of this materials.
This layer can be surrounded by a silver bus-bar heating ingredient. Present is run via the heating ingredient which in flip heats up the carbon nanotube layer and melts any snow, ice, or different moisture sticking to the headlight.
Rivian heated headlight patent picture
Many patented concepts fail to succeed in manufacturing, however Rivian won’t should cope with the regulatory hurdles that beforehand blocked the most recent headlight tech within the U.S. The NHTSA in 2022 lastly permitted the usage of fashionable matrix headlights after practically a decade of petitioning from automaker. It is unclear how the security regulator will react to Rivian’s integral heating parts, however this does a minimum of present a willingness to revisit archaic lighting rules.
Rivian itself obtained a $5.8 billion funding from Volkswagen, in addition to conditional approval of a $6.6 billion mortgage from the federal authorities for its Georgia manufacturing facility, which is scheduled to open in 2028.