New Coating Technology Promises Self-Cleaning Cars 88
Zothecula writes "Nissan's "Scratch Guard Coat" has been healing fine scratches on the company's cars for a few years now, and the technology has also made its way into an iPhone case. More recent developments have produced coatings to heal more substantial scratches and scrapes using nano-capsules. Now researchers at The Netherlands' Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have developed a coating that is not only self-healing, but also promises to free car owners of the tiresome chore of washing the car ."
My car is already self cleaning... (Score:3)
I just leave it out in the middle of a rain storm and it comes out shiny and clean!
It's the mud (Score:2)
I live in a farm, I have to drive miles and miles of dirt road to get to the nearest tarmac pavement thoroughfare
The biggest "dirt" on my car are DIRT itself - that is, soil and mud, caking on the side and beneath of my car
As they dried, they got hard
Even if I stray them off, they still leave the reddish stain behind
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spidery robots crawling in your car, sucking dust into their plastic bags...
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Hello, Convertible!
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Actually they blow.
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Rain doesn't remove the oily film and the dirt that's attached to it you picked up from the road.
You obviously live in some backwards area with an insufficiently low pH to the rainfall.
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To be a stickler, the reason you don't drive on the road within 15 minutes of rain is ALSO due to the "natural" oils in the road coming up. And on new roads, it's vastly due to the oils that live inside the asphalt.
http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/rmv/handbook/DH-Chapter5.pdf [gov.ns.ca]
http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/buses/UpdatedWeb/topic_8/page5.html [nhtsa.gov]
acid rain. (Score:2)
acid rain could help, maybe the dude lives in china.
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That trick doesn't work so well in the middle of the desert. We had rain in Las Vegas early this morning, and my car's a mess. All the dust in the air comes down when it rains, and it usually doesn't keep raining afterward long enough to wash it off your car.
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Same in the UAE. That is often how the "abandoned in Dubai" vehicles look abandoned... at least the ones which are actually in Dubai
The outside of the car is not where this is needed (Score:2)
What I really want to know is will this technology work to keep the kid's car seats clean? And all other objects within 3 feet? And maybe the kids themselves? FYI, leaving the kids out in a rain storm does not leave them shiny and clean. Um, so I hear.
Also the article has no info on the UV/chemical resistance of this coating, or how often it would have to be reapplied. Where are the details?
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Re:In other news... (Score:5, Interesting)
...scientists at Nissan have discovered what they now call "Teflon". Updates to follow.
Teflon's a epic fail outdoors because it has zilch creep strength and dirt embeds itself into it, rapidly reducing its friction and electrical properties to that of dirt. Thats one reason (aside from cost) that no one uses teflon insulators for power line or antenna supports.
For obvious economic reasons, the "solution" to the surface filth is going to be deployed on HVDC power line insulators long before it'll be on cars, and even then what works for a mostly motionless insulator might not work on a car.
This is because the nano-sized molecular groups that provide these properties are easily and irreversibly damaged by minor contact with the surface on which they are applied.
Hmm not thinking road gravel at 75 mph is "minor contact". Even road salt and dust is pretty tough stuff. And windshield washer fluid. Heck just a frog-drowning rainstorm at 75 mph is pretty harsh.
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Or an old toyota.
We used to go a lot faster than that on the back roads when I was a kid. Not safe mind you, but lots of people do.
Re:Cars? Bah! (Score:4, Funny)
What about self-cleaning teenager rooms?
2-cycle gas leafblower. House stank of engine oil for days. Boy did I get in trouble. Still hear about that one at family get togethers.
What happens when on the way to work, you tell a wanna be, engine revving teenage engineer he can't go out until the cat and dog fur tumbleweeds are vacuumed up? It actually worked pretty well other than blowing some pictures off the walls and pretty well terrifying the cats and dog.
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Better to just tell said teen that you've left a $100 check somewhere in there and they'll find it when they clean.
Not a nightmare at all (Score:3)
One might say this could be offered as an upgrade, but wow, that would make selling the cars a nightmare (none would be on the lot and would have to come straight from the factory)
Why is that a problem? MINI already manufactures most cars to order, from color to different interior options. People do not mind waiting a month for a car if they can more fully customize it.
On the minus side... (Score:2)
You know, of course, that mankind's lazy desire for truly self-cleaning surfaces will be what leads us to destruction at the teeny, tiny, hands of the nanite plague...
Just a minor nanite-layer replication error and the next user to touch that self-cleaning toilet seat will be converted directly into a lemony-fresh slurry. It'll be all downhill from there.
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It will come from an army or some factory first. Self cleaning surfaces have no need for reproduction, but weapons and industrial equipment have (ok, exponential factories reproduce in a much safer way, if they actualy work).
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the next user to touch that self-cleaning toilet seat will be converted directly into a lemony-fresh slurry
For some users that I know that will be about as useful as they have been their whole lives.
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Just a minor nanite-layer replication error and the next user to touch that self-cleaning toilet seat will be converted directly into a lemony-fresh slurry. It'll be all downhill from there.
I've never heard that Soylent Green was lemony fresh. Learn something every day.
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It's been done. [advantagemotorsports.com]
In a libertarian utopia, this is the kind of vehicle you'd drive every day!
And robo-fill the damned tank while you're at it! (Score:1)
It's the inside that's the problem!
It's the inside that's the problem!
It's the inside that's the problem!
Gosh! Money laying on the ground people.
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That's why God gave us hand car wash places.
The one I got to has free wi-fi and vibrating recliners.
Google's self-driving car already does this (Score:4, Funny)
Just program it up to drive to the car wash, drive through it, and drive back home.
If Google adds functionality enabling it to pick up stuff at fast food drive-ins, we're all set for life.
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What is this concept of "car washing" people are talking about?
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I can just picture the google car freaking out while going through the car wash "too close! too close! collision imminent!!!"
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Spray paint doesn't attract dust. Dust sticks to it before it dries. If you don't clear coat it afterwards, the rough texture will make dust stick to it a bit more easily as well.
And the paint matching problem is why a lot of off-road trucks are painted plain black with plain brush-on metal paint. To fix it, you just paint on more black and it all looks the same. It's a very practical coating but it looks dull and rough and won't attract the ladies.
Never Happen in the States (Score:1)
The carwash political lobbyists and Unite Carwash Labor Employees of America Now! (UCLEAN) will bury this technology.
Look what happened to the 100mpg ICE engine.
Won't somebody think of the car wash towels dryers!!
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Wait...
Was the the Internal Combustion Engine engine, or the engine that "RUNS ON ICE!!!"?
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Dang. Was hoping for option #3, the Intrusion Countermeasure Executable engine.
Ahh well.
Stupid monkeys....
Alternate Uses (Score:1)
I'm wondering if this technology might be used on my brother-in-law.
Cue the lobbys... (Score:2)
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Fund raiser car washes... you just have to do them like this [wordpress.com]
as for the guys who wash your windscreen and demand $2 later.. like having a clean windscreen is going to stop them.
Tiresome Chore? (Score:3)
also promises to free car owners of the tiresome chore of washing the car
Having children is also another way to accomplish this, albeit at much greater cost. Once I (and my siblings) turned 10, my parents never washed a vehicle again (until we left the house).
"Dad, can I watch TV?"
"No. Now go wash the car."
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You obviously don't have kids of your own yet.
I do - A boy and a girl.
"Psssh." *pulls out smartphone and goes to Youtube.*
"Hey Dad, my smartphone has stopped working."
"Yeah, I cut it off."
"What?!?! Why?!?!"
"You blew me off when I told you to go wash the car. Now go cut the lawn."
There will always be a market for car washing (Score:2)
That market consists of men who want to watch girls in bikini's get lathered up and sprayed down.
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I suppose you've never lived in a place where they dump salt on the roads in the winter?
Around here EVERYONE shows up at the car wash on a warm spring day.
no way (Score:2)
what about:
- dead bugs
- tree sap
- particles of hot patch
there is no possible way to keep these things from sticking. These things require physical scraping and nasty solvents to remove, even from a brand new shiny slick paint finish.
Cars or cats? (Score:2)
IBM had a similar coating on the Thinkpads (Score:3)
I mention this before the Apple fans start claiming Apple "pioneered" the use of such coatings in computers.
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I love Thinkpads (T or X series) and Toughbooks (CF-19's and CF-30's) and have always felt I got my money's worth from them.
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That sucks! (Score:1)
Dimple cars (Score:2)
I have another solution (Score:2)
I just let my car remain dirty. In addition to being easier, this leaves a protective layer of dirt covering the paint film. (I do remove bird droppings, however)
can i be the pessimist (Score:1)