[ehalverson]

The plastic fairing on top of the driver's side wiper, what's it for? It seems like it must be some clever improvement over every other car ever made as I've never seen it on anything else, but I can't figure out what it does.

 

[plain OM]

It's supposed to "catch the wind" to put downward pressure on the wiper blade at higher speeds when the blade could tend to lift off the window.

I presume it's the result of some wind tunnel testing, and might have something to do with the shape/slope of the windshield. You're right -- it's not seen in this form elsewhere, although, some "one piece" blades and the blades on the newer Subarus have covers with a similar sort of angular shape.

 

[jogosub]

Those fairings work well on autobahn, when it rains, going 200 km/h (or higher)...not that much use for those on these shores!