NASA is worried that SpaceX execs are threatening their
safety reputation by engaging in a culture
of recreational drug use, meanwhile Ford scientists are the ones trying to
turn your car into an autonomous
easy bake oven.
In an effort to satisfy its Chinese customer base, Ford
has presciently researched basic components of a car that can smell itself and
bake its own VOCs right out of it, if you're into that sort of thing.
That is to say, if you're not into "new car
smell." If you ever thought a deep whiff of evaporated plastic was gross,
you're not alone. It's hurting sales in China, where many customers in China
find it repulsive.
Before we get to the great idea that Ford came up with to
get rid of new-car-smell (while they were apparently evaporating some VOCs of
their own) we have to talk about this modern marvel for just a moment.
Smell of the New
The smell of new things is an interesting category in
itself. What does a "new thing" smell like? Babies have a pretty
strong reputation for smelling good, on their heads at least. When food comes
out of the oven, is this a "new" smell? How about when you come out
of the shower?
When your car comes off the factory line, it has
"new" baked right into it. But your car didn't just come out of the
oven, or out of the shower, so where does this smell come from? Let's pretend,
for dialectical purposes, that the trifecta of new car smell is leather, fabric
and plastic.
Leather - You may think that because leather is animal
skin, that the smell we associate with this descriptor is from dried skin. Not
even close. The smell of animal-anything in leather is long gone before we get
our hands on it. In fact, the chemicals used to treat and preserve animal skin
are themselves so offputting that leather is impregnated with extra fragrance
to counteract it. This overall recipe is what we call Leather, and it's added
to things that aren't even leather to make us think they are.
Fabric - I am willing to bet that the smell you call
"fabric" has little to do with the fabric itself. If an olfactory
image was imparted to your mind as you read "the smell of fabric," it
was caused by laundry detergent, which probably smells like musk (because these
molecules work well with both fabric and detergent)*. If we can get more
specific and refer to your impression of the fabric in a new car, then I will
predict that what you're imagining is actually adhesives. Adhesives are made
with strong solvents that emit a pretty intense odor, but they are required to
attach fabric interiors. In the same way that some people love the smell of
gasoline, magic markers and spray paint, despite their deleterious health
effects, it is entirely possible that consumers can come to love this
"new" smell also.
Plastic - If I say to you "brand new plastic,"
you're limbic system may not perk up with anticipation and nostalgia. But if I
say brand new cassette tape, or new CD, or new toy, this is a different story
(depending on how old you are, of course). All of these things smell great, and
different, and they're all designed around the smell of plastic that is central
to the product, but impossible to remove. In the case of a cassette tape, there
was no intent to augment that blast of plastic air that snaps into space as it
opens for the first time.** It has now become commonplace however, that the inherent
smell of plastic in our products are camouflaged by masking agents, creating
something else entirely.
This leads to the core of the issue - the smell of
newness in your car is not a natural by-product of the material istelf. It is
designed, just like every other part of it. The new car, in its un-masked odor
state, does not smell "good" or "new." It smells like hot
plastic and glue.
China and
Olfactory Identity
What's up China, you don't like hot plastic and glue?
This comes as a surprise to many Americans who love this petrochemical
harbinger of exclusivity and reward. Is it because the Chinese work in the
factories that make these products, so the smell reminds them of work, not
luxury? Or better yet, because they are so familiar with the base smells that
they can still detect them under their olfactory camouflage? Probably not, as
the folks buying new cars are not the same class of people making them. Not to
mention, in America, the manufacturers and consumers were the same people, and
they liked it.
Querying the olfactory preferences of a culture is not
easy. The variables involved are myriad and dynamic, just as the flux of people
that make it up. Here's a quick one that just came to mind - Coconut.
In America just about any personal hygiene product you
can think of now comes in coconut flavor. Your shampoo, lotion, body scrub,
conditioner, lip balm, lip gloss and nail polish remover jk. It's also in every
food imaginable, including your gum, your cooking oil, granola bars, breakfast
cereal, cookies, ice cream...in fact Coconut has dominated the American market
so fully, there's probably coconut flavored pasta out there. You get the idea.
Right about the same time I was living with a sociopathic
naturopath, hence my nose swimming in coconut flavored everything all day, La Croix
jumped on the tropical jeepney, as it were. Now, St. Croix isn't known for it's
delicious, mouth-watering flavors. It's perhaps better known for being good at
negative flavor, that is, adding flavor to a thing to make it taste even less
like nothing than it did before. Anyway, I tried this "flavor" around
the same time my entire apartment was filled with volatile organic coconuts. It
didn't taste like a drink to me; it tasted like body lotion. This is simple
association, and the risk that any culture runs as they adopt a new olfactory
identity.
McDonald's doesn't have the same menu or the same recipes
in New York as it does in Beijing. The inside of the restuarant doesn't smell
the same and that is by design not by accident. So why should cars smell the
same?
Ford on Drugs
This is where it gets crazy. In order to appease its vast
customer base that detests the new smell of their cars, Ford has spent enough
time on this to try and get a patent for it: on warm, sunny days, the car will
drive itself to a safe location, roll down the windows and bake the shit out of
itself. I will assume it does this repeatedly until it has no more
"new" left. And only for customers who declare that they don't like
new.
You may wonder why Ford doesn't try to get the hot
plastic and glue out of the car in the first place. You may also wonder how an
autonomous vehicle with a sub-directive to offgass itself didn't show up in any
of the scifi you've been reading. Then again, it is understandable; why would
they take all the "gas" out of their cars if not all of their
customers want it out. Let the customer decide. And with autonomous cars a
fertile crescent for innovation, there's probably way crazier ideas buzzing
around their research department.
*It is true, the
smell that we associate with fresh, clean linen is musk. It is so ubiquitous in
laudry detergent, that it now has a stronger association with "fresh
laundry" than it does to "musk," which is ironic because this
smell comes from an animal's butt, and you wouldn't think that to carry a clean
association.
**There is a
pesticide used in my neighborhood that smells identical to a new cassette tape.
I only notice it in the height of summer and don't know if it's really a
pesticide, but that's my guess. Anyone having experience with this, please
share.
Notes:
Nov 2018, Ars
Technica
Post Script:
Ozium is an odor neutralizing air spray popular with car
interiors.
Secrets
of That New-Car Smell: A rose by any other name would likely smell like,
oh, gunmetal and maybe tennis balls.
Listen to this sommelier describe a bunch of different
new cars’ smells.
Nov 2003, Sherri
Daley for Car and Driver
"Boat shop; cavernous vintage boat hangar, mahogany
or varnished rosewood, lovingly crafted, hand-rubbed. All natural, nothing
artificial or manufactured" – 2003 Bentley Arnage
"Boom! Leather and beurre noisette. Rich without
being overbearing" – 2001 Bentley Arnage
"Subtle, stiff smells of burnished metal and dry
leather. A harder, more masculine smell, short bits of hide, gunmetal. This
smell is straightforward, fast, and clean. The aroma is quickly perceived and
erased" – 2003 Ferrari 360 Modena
"A mélange of basketball, football, and baseball
leather. Bright, bold rubberized smells" – another 2003 Ferrari 360 Modena
“Like smelling the palm of a well-broken-in kidskin
driving glove" – and another 2003 Ferrari 360 Modena, Spider
"Very unattractive smell of cleaner of some sort. No
wood or leather" – a Lexus
"Very one-dimensional, nothing lying underneath.
Clean, pleasant, sterile, a touch of plastic" – 2004 Acura TSX
"Very faint, almost an absence of aromas. No leather
smell at all. Light plastic or cleaner." – 2003 Acura 3.2TL
"Mixed aromas of leather, rubber mats, carpet, and
plastic" – 2003 Ford Escape
all these
descriptions come from the abovementioned
Car and Driver article.
These
retailers think “new car smell” is about having no smells at all, or rather
not adding new smells to the original
new car smell.(?!) They sell a product that neutralizes odors.
I stand corrected; to them, new car smell is the smell of
success:
“Enjoy the crisp
scent of successful achievement with Chemical Guys New Car Smell Air
Freshener & Odor Eliminator.”
Here's a few posts that may or may not be relevant.
On intellectual property and the smell of Play-Doh
On the smell of old people
Make yourself smell like Grandpa in 3 easy steps
Exactly what the title says it's about, but by Jolie Kerr
the cleaning expert
WELL certification program for indoor environmental
quality for buildings, for people who don't like that "new building"
smell
Continue the digression on musk and clean laundry
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