World's first self-cleaning car repels rain, mud and everyday dirt
By Raymond Wong, Dvice, 25 April 2014.
By Raymond Wong, Dvice, 25 April 2014.
There are two ways to clean a car: you can do it yourself or pay someone else to do sud it up and wipe it down for you. One method requires time and the other requires parting with some cash. But what if you had a car that cleaned itself and hardly ever got dirty? Now, we're talking.
Nissan's self-cleaning car doesn't use little robotic arms or anything of the sort to clean up your car. The magic is actually kind of invisible to the naked eye. By applying Ultra-Ever Dry, a special super super-hydrophobic and oleophobic coating developed by UltraTech International, to a car, Nissan was able to repel rain, frost, sleet, spray, and standing water.
So how does the coating magically repel all that grime and keep a car looking squeaky clean? The Engineer breaks it down:
"The surface of the coating is comprised of nano-scale patterns of geometric shapes with high-points that help to create a low surface energy. This causes droplets of water to touch a very small percentage of the coating. The water in the droplet that does not touch these “high points” is held together by intermolecular cohesive forces of the water molecules. This effectively creates a protective layer of air between the paint and environment, and stops standing water and road spray from creating dirty marks on the car’s surface."
To show off its self-cleaning car, Nissan took a Note and sprayed half of it with the magic substance, and then drove it through a course of water spray, mud and dirt. As you can see for yourself, the half that wasn't coated returned back filthy and the half that was coated was nearly pristine. It's remarkable stuff.
The specially coated Note is just a prototype of what's possible, but could become available as an extra aftermarket option. Nissan teases on its YouTube video that "drivers may never have to clean their car again." Sounds great, where can I sign up?
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