Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, Lars Moravy, said focused lasers could be used to clear water only in front of a robotaxi camera, rather than wiping an entire windshield, in a Jay Leno’s Garage episode released Nov. 9. Teslarati reported the same remarks.
Why it matters: Moravy was describing an idea, not announcing a Cybercab feature or a timeline. He appeared with design chief Franz von Holzhausen as Leno was shown the six-seat Model Y L.
“If you fire them in a focused area, you can clean the sheet of water and create a barrier,” Teslarati quoted Moravy as saying. “When you think about autonomy, it might be a good solution to only clean the area where the camera is.” He said clearing a full windshield would take too many lasers to be practical. Not a Tesla App noted that the comments come about 14 minutes into the episode and that Tesla has a patent on pulsed laser cleaning of debris on glass.
Teslarati said Tesla filed the patent, “Pulsed Laser Cleaning of Debris Accumulated on Glass Articles in Vehicles and Photovoltaic Assemblies,” in May 2019, that it was granted in September 2021, and that an updated divisional patent was granted March 31, 2026. The idea was once linked to the Cybertruck, which Tesla ultimately shipped with a large conventional wiper. A contactless system would matter more on a vehicle with no one on board to notice smeared glass, both outlets said, but Tesla has not said it will put lasers on the Cybercab.