{"id":75456,"date":"2014-04-25T10:43:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T14:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=75456"},"modified":"2014-04-25T10:43:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T14:43:02","slug":"nissan-tests-a-self-cleaning-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2014\/04\/nissan-tests-a-self-cleaning-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Nissan Tests a Self-Cleaning Car"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Nissan Note shows how the water and oil-resistant coating keeps one side of the vehicle clean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If it\u2019s not winter\u2019s salt and grime, it\u2019s mud and everyday dirt. Keeping your car clean can be a chore \u2013 a backbreaking one if you prefer to do it yourself.<\/p>\n

But Nissan is testing a car that can keep itself clean, thanks to special paints that repel water and oils. Similar technology could eventually allow manufacturers to do away with windshield wipers by effectively fend off water and grime. Meanwhile, new coatings can also help keep a car\u2019s interior cleaner, something especially useful for parents \u2013 or those actively involved in sports like camping and trail biking.<\/p>\n

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We Dish the Dirt!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Nissan Technical Center in Rolle, Switzerland is in the midst of testing a specially prepared version of the maker\u2019s little European Note model. The subcompact hatchback has had a layer of a special coating, called Ultra-Ever Dry applied over its conventional paint finish. Developed by UltraTech International, it\u2019s technically known as a super-hydrophobic and oleophobic paint. In other words, it actually repels both oil and water.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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The Nissan Note takes a mud bath.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That means that most common dirt, grime and oil won\u2019t stick to the vehicle\u2019s sheet metal. \u00a0The Ultra-Ever Dry finish even works with rain, frost and sleet, Nissan reports, after preliminary testing.<\/p>\n

“The Nissan Note has been carefully engineered to take the stress out of customer driving,\u201d said Geraldine Ingham, the Chief Marketing Manager for the hatchback. “We are committed to addressing everyday problems our customers face and will always consider testing exciting, cutting edge technology like this incredible coating application.”<\/p>\n

For the moment, the maker says it has no plans to offer the coating as a standard feature, but \u201cwill continue to consider (it) as a future aftermarket option.\u201d<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> to check out some of the year’s coolest automotive technologies.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The maker did come up with another interesting paint technology a few years back, a self-healing paint. Dubbed Scratch Shield, it uses an elastic resin mixed into a conventional paint formulation that, when exposed to sunlight, would fill in small scratches within a matter of hours. Unfortunately, few motorists have been willing to pay the premium for the special formulations and Nissan now offers Scratch Shield in only a few markets \u2013 not including the U.S..<\/p>\n

The Japanese maker isn\u2019t the only one looking at hydrophobic coatings \u2013 which could prove an interesting alternative for keeping windshields clear and clean. Italian design house Pininfarina recently rolled out its wiper-less Hidra concept vehicle, which relies on both aerodynamic design to minimize what actually comes close to the windshield \u2013 and a special coating designed to keep things from sticking if they do come into contact with the glass.<\/p>\n

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Six-year-old Urwah Khan, sitting in the "puke zone," helps GM researcher Matt Gohlke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under a hydrophobic outer coat, a second, nano layer \u201cpushes\u201d dirt off to the sides, while a third layer essentially helps clean off grime.\u00a0 An additional, electrically conductive layer provides the power needed to make it all work.<\/p>\n

Pininfarina designers claim the technology behind the Hidra wiper-less windshield could prove reasonably cost-competitive and could wind up in production in a few year, marking the most significant improvement in rain gear since the first hand-operated wipers were introduced more than a century ago.<\/p>\n

British sports carmaker McLaren, meanwhile, has lifted a page from fighter jet construction, it is experimenting with a system that uses high-frequency sound waves to create a sonic barrier to prevent water and dirt from reaching the windshield.<\/p>\n

Cleanliness is only one reason why makers would like to eliminate the windshield wiper. The devices also create plenty of aerodynamic drag which reduces a vehicle\u2019s fuel economy.<\/p>\n

(For more on how automakers are hoping to make high-tech wipers, <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Manufacturers also are looking at ways to keep things clean inside their vehicles. Most fabrics are now treated with dirt and liquid-resistant coatings \u2013 or can be ordered with an optional treatment package. Ford says it also tries to design vehicles so it\u2019s easy to wipe or vacuum food or spilled beverages out of cracks and crevices.<\/p>\n

And to that effect, the new Honda Odyssey minivan this year began offering an optional, built-in vacuum cleaner tucked into its rear cargo compartment.<\/p>\n

(Honda wants to help parents clean up with 2014 Odyssey. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the story.) <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, one challenge is to prevent messes in the first place, says General Motors, which has been conducting research on ways to keep passengers, especially children stuck in back rows known to industry engineers as \u201cthe puke zone,\u201d from getting car sick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know through other scientific research that even if our eyes are focused on a fixed point \u2013 if we can see the outside passing by in the window \u2013 our brain is telling us that we are moving,\u201d explained Don Shreves, GM\u2019s Human Factors engineering group managersaid. \u00a0\u201cBut if our eyes are at a downward angle and do not see the view outside the vehicle, our bodies become sensitive to motion and increase the chance of sickness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among other things, the research has shown GM engineers that passengers are less likely to get sick when DVD screens are mounted overhead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If it\u2019s not winter\u2019s salt and grime, it\u2019s mud and everyday dirt. Keeping your car clean can be a chore, so Nissan is experimenting with a new paint that can repel water and dirt. Makers are also looking at self-cleaning windshields and dirt and resistant interiors — as well as ways to prevent messes in the so-called “puke zone.” TheDetroitBureau.com dishes up the dirt on this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75456"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=75456"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=75456"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=75456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}