World's smallest wiper coming to keep Hyundais safe

Hyundai Motor Group is developing a new device that will ensure its active safety technology works when things get messy.

The company has filed a patent for a Rotator Cam, technology designed to keep its cars’ camera sensors clean.

According to Korean Car Blog, it will work by using AI technology to monitor if the camera lens is obstructed by dirt or small debris.

The cleaning process essentially works in three steps.

The electric motor inside the Rotator Cam rotates the camera’s cover glass while a small amount of washer fluid is deployed from the bottom to clean the dirt. A wiper will then remove excess washer fluid.

Hyundai Motor Group isn’t the first to develop technology that cleans a vehicle’s camera – BMW and the Volkswagen Group do as well.

However, most other camera cleaners could leave excess washer fluid on the cover glass as they don’t incorporate a wiper.

By using a device to rotate the camera’s cover glass, it will mitigate the need for extra cleaning if the washer fluid squirt can’t remove all the dirt from a portion of the glass.

Korean Car Blog reports Hyundai Motor Group has plans to review the technology for mass-production after performance and durability testing.