• Tesla patents preview innovative ways to improve the efficiency of electric cars by cooling the cabin more effectively.
• One patent features a roof formed from a sandwich of regular glass and perforated glass with a honeycomb center.
• A second patent includes a system for pumping hot air out of the cockpit, which could be combined with the vented roof.

With summertime approaching, that panoramic glass roof you optioned starts looking less like a feature and more like a liability. Sure, it opened up the cabin with a more airy feel, but when the sun is beating down, it might as well be a magnifying glass hanging over an anthill. Perhaps spurred by the number of glass-roofed machines it has sold in sunny California, Tesla has patented a solution to the problem, as reported by Autoblog.

It’s not a new kind of electrochromic glass, as that already exists, but rather a way to turn that glass roof into part of the HVAC system. Using a sheet of perforated glass sandwiched with a conventional glass roof, Tesla’s patent invention turns a panoramic roof into a diffuser for cool air over occupants’ heads.

The idea is that cool air will settle out of the roof while hot air escapes up into it. Like InsideEVs reported earlier this month, Tesla also has a patent on a suction system to take hot air out of the cabin. These two effects could be combined to reduce the load on the air-conditioning system. Reduced load equals more range per kWh of battery.

A diffusion system that cools the cabin without blasting A/C at your face while your back is still all sweaty could be a neat solution for states that get a lot of sunshine. Instead of a greenhouse effect, the roof would actually be a cooling element.

Of course, a practical application requires a mass-manufacturing solution, and there’s no planned rollout for this technology yet. Further, the honeycomb structure of the glass is far more complex than a standard retractable sunroof; a semi-trailer throwing up stones could make for an expensive day.

When winter comes, the patent indicates that hot air could also be pumped into the roof. It’s not clear whether this would be a way of dissipating heat or warming the cabin, but it does show that this perforated roof would be integrated into the HVAC system.

The patent is proof that there are still incremental efficiency improvements hidden everywhere in a modern automobile, and it’s up to engineers to find them. Given that other manufacturers still pay close attention to Tesla’s technological updates, a panoramic roof that’s actually cool could very well turn up in the near future.

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