Last year, Ford announced that it had hired 18 scientists in China to determine the causes of new car smell. The Golden Noses, as they were dubbed, were looking into the smell largely because Chinese buyers, unlike Americans, find the smell objectionable.

Now Ford has released a patent outlining a process for getting rid of the smell in its new cars. The process takes advantage of the long-observed fact that the sun’s heat can make new cars smell, well, newer.

Basically, the process involves heating up the car or “baking” it, as per the patent’s language. That can happen by parking it in the sun or by turning it on and running the heater, and then cracking a window to let the volatile organic compounds—the compounds known as VOCs that cause new car smell—out.

Ford has even developed a computer system that, based on the research the company has done, will determine how likely a car is to smell, whether or not the customer it’s going to wants new car smell, and can then open the windows, activate the heater, the fan, and even turn the car on if need be.

Although Ford may be looking into this because of customer complaints in China, the patent we found is being processed by the US Patent Office. That could be because this isn’t just a question of preferences. 

New car smell happens as a cocktail of chemical compounds (largely used as preservatives in materials) found about the car (leathers, plastics, fabrics, etc) are released as VOCs. These, unfortunately, can be bad for your health. They can cause head aches, dizziness, or even cancer in extreme cases (but you’d likely have to be huffing new cars for it to get that bad). The good news is that as the smell fades, so does the outgassing of VOCs.

So Ford’s patent isn’t just Febreezing the smell (and the danger), it’s getting rid of it. So even if you miss the smell, you probably shouldn’t mind it being gone.

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