Self-cleaning cars and phones that stop you from texting while driving
Nissan has been working on a car that will keep itself clean via a new paint technology.
The self-cleaning prototype is coated in a paint described as being “super-hydrophobic and oleophobic” called Ultra-Ever Dry. The paint is designed to repel mud, rain and dirt and it might just spell the end of needing to wash one’s car ever again, unless the paintjob chips of course.
According to the company, the paint works by creating aprotective layer of air between the paint and the environemnt thus nothing in the environment sticks to the surface of the car. The obviousl downside of this self-cleaning approach is that the car can’t keep itself entirely clean, as the grille, headlights and everything else that isn’t covered in the pain will still get dirty.
European testers are planning to run a Nissan Note hatchback with this special paint on through a variety of conditions over the coming months, and the company is looking at the idea of using the coating as a “potential aftermarket application” however there are no current plans to offer the technology as a standard.
Now from one new technology to another, it appears that the Apple iPhone might actually be getting a bit smarter soon, thanks to a new software that will make it capable of locking drivers out of their phone in order to prevent them from texting, using apps or surfing the web while also driving.
Apple has submitted a patent for a new system that will basically brick the phone when it detects that the person is intending to use its functions at the same time as driving.
This patent documents has actually been lodged initially in 2008 but only now has it been made public and it states that the phone would be capable of establishing if the driver is using it by analyzing GPS data, mobile mast locations as well as the phone’s in-built camera.
Several Android phones have already had a driving mode locking function, but the driver has to enable them to work.
