General Motors has filed to patent a transparent vehicle A-pillar, GM Authority can confirm.
This GM patent filing has been assigned application number US 11,267,514 B2 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and was published on May 27th, 2021. It’s titled “transparent vehicle A-pillar” and lists Michigan-based engineers Venkateshwar R. Aitharaju, Bradley A. Newcomb and Xiasong Huang as the inventors.
This patent application describes a technology that would make the A-pillar of a vehicle, that being the foremost structural roof support that frames the windshield, partially transparent. The A-pillar design would have a hole in the middle with a transparent opening in the middle, which would typically be about 40mm to 80mm wide and 200mm to 400mm long. The opening would also feature a heated de-fogging/de-icing system.
A-Pillar on a 2021 Chevy Trailblazer crossover
The patent application specifically mentions this A-pillar as being “fibre-reinforced,” with carbon fiber or glass fiber, for example, which would give it additional rigidity. This would be important, as an A-pillar is a key structural member of a vehicle chassis and the metal would lose much of its integrity with a hole cut in the middle of it. Carbon or glass fiber weave, by comparison, is much stronger and would therefore allow for the presence of the transparent A-pillar hole without compromising vehicle safety.
While the patent application mentions the A-pillar first and foremost, it acknowledges that this technology could be carried over to the B-Pillar, C-Pillar and D-pillar of a given vehicle and would offer similar potential benefits here. It’s worth noting that the window opening embedded in the pillar would not necessarily be visible from outside the vehicle, as it could be partially or fully obscured with glass tint.
The patent indicates this design would “substantially” improve driver visibility without requiring reductions in the physical size of the underlying vehicle frame. In other words, this would allow automakers to use thicker pillars for vehicle safety while providing additional visibility for the driver and occupants. The design comes with its own setbacks, however, as carbon or glass fiber-reinforced chassis members could prove to be expensive and may drive up materials and vehicle engineering costs.
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Comments
well, made several BIW A-pillars in CAD Catia, for Webasto VW Lupo, BMW E46/5 Compact with integrated Airbag, feasibility Sections to A-Pillar Z4 etc, all sheet metal and the cushion plastic cover, but no way this invention brings something easy and plausible … … … … … first thought would be this Windshield of 1960ies with curved setback reintroduced, which for me made more sense and was much more more beautiful as design of final product .. so this patent is for me a no. How the Airbag inside this pillar can be transparent ?
Side curtain airbags don’t extend that far forward. If your head is past the edge of the dashboard, it’s hopeless.
Saw a Volvo concept car at the Detroit Auto Show back in 2001 that had an A pillar like this but was made up of small transparent triangles.
Or the driver can move their head a few inches to either side to see past the a-pillar. 😒 I don’t see the need for anyone to see anything outside the vehicle in the future anyways… Our vehicles will drive themselves.
how about a flexible OLED panel covering the A pillar, with the display coming from a small camera on the outside? Seems a lot more doable.
The problem is your head has to be in the exact right place or it will look offset with the view out the window. Until somebody develops eye tracking, you can’t slouch in the seat or lean.
Here we go with even more micro chips!
As vehicles get more robot control and they talk to each other they will become safer and then maybe the accident rate will go down dramatically and we can start reducing the safety considerations that have turned our automobile and truck cabins into dungeons.
How about you focus on putting better seals in your car first so we can stop dealing with all these oil leaks. Own five GM vehicles and all five of them leaked oil. Everybody I know that has had a GM vehicle has also leaked oil. How about we fix this problem before trying to do something like this.
Phone drivers can’t see out any of the windows.
A 14 year old girl from Pennsylvania invented this already back in 2019. She even won $25000 for her invention.
My daughter was that 14 year old!
Volvo did this concept years ago. It was several see through triangles interlocking one another.
Ryan I don’t know what five GM vehicles you had I have owned six GM vehicles and none ever leaked oil on me… Where do you get your oil changed at? If it’s a quick lube of any name they are notorious for over tightening the oil Valve drain plug thus destroying the threads and causing oil leaks! I am not saying GM is perfect but an oil leak sure beats ford’s current problem of break fluid leaking… I would much rather have an oil leak then break fluid leak and risk my life. Then again ford’s are junk.
My Chevy Corvair says: ” Hold my Beer…”
My daughter is the one who won the Broadcom masters science fair with a solution for eliminating blind spots in A-pillar!
Why don’t they replace the metal pillar with a strong clear acrylic that can support the same weight that a steel column can?