one of the other differences is that a lot of cars now come from the factory with flat blade wipers; there’s no insert which can be refilled.
Larger boats will use a small window spinning at high speed that sheds the water so you can see out.
Actually mentioned in the Arthur C Clarke book mentioned above.
Could you even make one and meet windsheild saftey standards?
Brian
This would of course be impractical for a number of other reasons besides safety standards. Just thought I would through it out there.
See the first link I posted earlier. It was tried in cars, but I can’t imagine that a large central vision-blockage (motor and bearings) was very useful.
I do not change my nearly often enough and I’ve suddenly become aware of how poor the quality is where I start to see long curved streaks. I should really change them every Autumn when I change the smoke detector batteries!
I’ve never felt the need for a higher Tech solution to this problem. Virtually all windshields are slightly different sizes and different curve and a self-adjusting design with the windshield wiper clip and Armature is kind of the perfect solution.
The cruise ship I was on in July had big wipers on the glass at the front of the bridge.
If you ever watch Deadliest Catch you’ll see lots of shots of those clear view spinners in action.
I’d think that on a cruise ship they wouldn’t be needed because they are so high above any wave action. Wipers are probably plenty good against rain.
Here’s a design nitpick- many cars today have different lengths for the two blades. That I don’t mind, but why does the short right wiper have to come so far left into the long wiper’s territory? It stops right in the middle of the driver’s field of view and sometimes leaves a line there between the longer wiper’s swipes. Why don’t they just stop in the middle of the windshield behind the rear view mirror?
Maybe it’s on its way. Lexus is developing a car with no side view mirrors.
As for McLaren, the Senna seems to still have a wiper. 
Sadly my invention that blasted away the raindrops using squid tentacles stimulated via electric current never took off. That damn ink sac!
I have a real problem with Rain-X in winter. under the right conditions road salt can splash up and impregnate it making the window extra hard to see through when the sun is facing you. It does OK otherwise but the wipers work fine so I don’t see the need.
Small airplanes don’t have wipers so I like to use a good wax on the windscreen.
In my misspent youth, I drove a vessel that used spinning discs for wipers. These are the only thing that works in the types of storms you encounter in the North Sea, etc. (Force 10, 40 foot waves and spray)
Here’s an example of one. They really work that well. Even when the rest of the glass is effectively opaque, you have a clear view outside.
As mentioned above, I can’t see how to transfer this to cars. The visible area would be too small.
Make the entire front windshield a spin window by spinning the entire passenger compartment. 
Mine don’t seem to last a year - and I’ve bought expensive ones and WalMart cheapies. My car is garage-kept, but at work it sits in the open and the dash is dark, so maybe the rubber is being baked? Or maybe my windshield is crap. Either way, I change them was more often than I ever had to on previous cars.