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Comment by iandanforth | Hacker News Reader

What if this were an option at a carwash? I use full synthetic oil because it allows me to increase time between changes. I would pay more for a car wash that lasted longer as well. If the problem is a need to re-apply, can you get a coating that could be sprayed across the entire car without a need to mask out bits like in the video?

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You have a point. How often/long do you wash your car, and how much $ do you spend on this? I have to admit, I do not wash my car very often. Pity they did not report anything about the cost of deploying the "dirtophobic" car paint film. If one could make it a quickly applicable, inexpensive "spray and go" option that allows to regenerate a dirt repelling film - why not. But there must be a reason why "Nissan says it has no plans to offer the paint as standard equipment, but will consider making it an option".

I am also wondering why they neglected the windows in the video clip. Might be a problem with transparency of the film, or a difference in the nature of the film adhesion to regular paint and glass. It is a pity that they did not provide any data on mechanical stability and film degradation. Without this data, I still do believe that this is a PR thing. Alas, it is wired.com.

They are using Ultra Ever Dry.

It is not transparent.

There's good reason to have shown this on a white car because of this fact. 1. white give nice contrast for dirt but importantly 2. white nicely hides the frosty appearance of Ultra Ever Dry.

Check out the ars technica article - the UED video at the top shows work boots frosted over with the stuff. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/03/the-internet-demanded...

well I am sure I speak for a few others, I enjoy washing the car. Its relaxing and it also lets me find all those little oopsies. That being said, I wonder if this surface would apply well to clear bras? I can wax both the paint and the film that is the clear bra without any noticeable differences just spending a second to insure no build up where the bra ends.

Reflectivity of paint is another concern, like how rain x does to windows in that while it looks clean there are discernible patterns of dirt there. Is this totally clean or can you see the residue of fine particles?

This is one of the reasons you should wax your car regularly. The wax helps water bead up and run off instead of sticking to the paint, and when it comes time for a car wash, what did stick comes off more easily. Once water stops beading up, it's time to wax it again.

It would do bad things to windscreens and the effectiveness of wipers.

Remove wipers and you have the issue that if someone failed to get a re-apply the effectiveness would diminish over time.

The film they applied, assuming it is similar to the current variety of super hydrophobic coating are not entirely transparent so that would not working in an automated carwash.

That said, in the UK (London) it looks everybody use hand carwash, so maybe there.

Very interesting, I wonder the environment hazards, if any, of such technology.

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