From the invention of the first modern automobile in 1885 until the early 20th century, cars did not have windshield wipers. Drivers had to drive with the windows open in the rain, often resulting in accidents due to poor visibility.

In 1876, an American woman named Mary Anderson observed that drivers had to frequently extend their arms to wipe the windshield in rain and snow, posing significant safety risks. She conceived an innovative design: installing a rubber blade on the windshield that could be manually operated to clear rain and snow. This idea is considered the prototype of the windshield wiper.

In 1903, French engineer J.P.J. De La Motte installed a manual windshield wiper on a windshield, attracting the attention of car manufacturers.

In 1917, American J.R. Oishei, after experiencing a near accident while driving in a rainstorm in Buffalo, New York, invented a manual wiper with a metal arm and a rubber strip to prevent similar incidents.

Due to the inconvenience of operating manual wipers while driving, Oishei further developed the idea and successfully created an electrically driven wiper system in 1917. This marked the beginning of the modern windshield wiper.

In the 1960s, American inventor Bob Kearns, who lost vision in his left eye from a champagne cork, found it challenging to see clearly while driving in the rain. This motivated him to invent intermittent wipers, which he successfully developed in 1963.