Ars Technica:

The next time you’re in a parking lot, or when you’re walking on the sidewalk along a street with lots of parked cars, take a look at the windshield wipers. On some cars, the wiper arms are mounted fairly close to each other and are designed to move in unison. On others, the arms are mounted at opposite sides of the car and face each other in the center of the windshield. Some wiper arms are short and some are long. Some are straight, and some, especially on newer cars, are curved or bent.

But the reality is that wiper design is driven primarily by practicalities, not aesthetics.

Dave tweeted this earlier today. I love these articles about common, everyday technology that most of us give no thought to.