- Rivian has applied for a patent to heat the headlight lens to make winter driving safer.
- The patent drawings show a resistive outer element using carbon nanotubes to heat the lens.
- There are currently no production vehicles with heated headlight lenses.
Every winter, Rivian owners take to the forums and Reddit to complain about ice buildup on their trucks’ headlights that drastically reduces effectiveness. LEDs don’t emit enough heat to melt snow and ice, so it stays on the lens until you scrape it off. In some conditions you have to do that every few miles. Rivian has a solution for that problem, though: heated headlight lenses.
Rivian filed a patent for heated headlight lenses in June 2023. The patent was made public in December last year. The document shows that Rivian is considering adding a heating element that sends heat across the entire lens thanks to embedded carbon nanotubes. This solution was chosen so as not to obstruct light going through the lens. Traditional electronic defrosters—like the one you probably have on your rear window—layer heating elements in opaque lines, slightly decreasing visibility.
Photo by: USPTO
You can buy aftermarket headlights with a heating function, but they are usually round, making them hard to integrate with most modern, angular housings. We don’t imagine Rivian owners would be willing to integrate an additional set of headlights, though, and they want the ones on the truck to remain effective in all weather conditions.
Rivian could have solved the problem the old-fashioned way by installing heated nozzles to spray the headlight clean, but the heated lenses seem like a more elegant solution. Using traditional resistive heating elements embedded in the lens would be a more straightforward, cheaper solution, so it will be interesting to see what Rivian actually puts into production.
The problem isn’t limited to Rivian, though. All new cars with LED headlights suffer from similar issues, as well as fogging on the inside of the headlights that doesn’t go away. Halogen or xenon lights run much warmer, so if you leave them on long enough, they will begin to melt snow and ice on the exterior and eliminate condensation inside.
LEDs are the go-to choice for most modern cars because they use considerably less electricity than other types of lighting, emit just as much light and give manufacturers more control over where the light goes and how it’s dispersed. For electric vehicles, the big draw is LEDs’ lower electricity consumption, which doesn’t significantly affect range.
The patent drawings submitted by Rivian to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office uncovered by Motor Authority show a headlight with the typical Rivian design, so it’s unclear if it’s meant for an R1, R2 or R3. If it puts this in a production car, it will be the second manufacturer to offer this in a series model, although competitors will likely catch up. We know no vehicles with factory-fitted heated headlights, but you can get aftermarket Oculus projector headlights with heated lenses for the Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator. Let’s hope they’re available soon on another set of boxy, off-road products.
