Why do automakers camouflage cars?

The camouflage that automakers meticulously design to conceal new vehicles only seems to make them stand out from everything else on the road. Isn’t that the opposite of what camo is supposed to do? Why bother using camouflage at all?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hi, and
welcome to Car Stuff. I'm Scott and you may not
be able to tell by my disguise, but it's me.
Then we are joined today with our super producer Tyler
clang At, which makes this our show. You really do

(00:25):
need to take off that Halloween custom. It's been a while. Yeah,
I'm you know, I'm taking method acting and applying it
to Halloween. So this is this is it now, Scott,
This is the situation. What I was just thinking about
this on the way in today, And this is kind
of crazy. This is for the first year in many
years that we kind of just forgot to do a
Halloween episode, you know, something kind of spooky, something a

(00:45):
little fun car related of course, or train related or whatever.
We didn't do any kind of like like spooky podcast
or anything like that, not that they're you know, terrifying
or anything, but it always usually has a little bit
of a an angle to it, right, Yeah, a little
bit of Twilight Zone ish true crime esque, uh Tilts
or tent Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes we talked about urban legends,

(01:06):
we talked about we talked about the I was the
name of that that train that carried the dead in
uh Um in London. Yeah, that was just last year,
I think it was. But we we've talked about sunken cars,
all kinds of things like that, you know, just cars
that have disappeared. Do we ever do the thing about
corpse transportation services? No, we haven't. Well, there's an idea

(01:28):
for I guess. I guess, so I'll have to put
it on hold for another year. Hey, you know one
other quick thing before we we roll into this topic.
On the way into work, this was Boy, it had
to have been about two or three weeks ago now,
And I meant to say this at the time because
we were recording soon after, and I just forgot. It's
been put on a note at my desk and just
left behind. But I saw something really unusual here in town,

(01:51):
in Atlanta, in Atlanta, right near where we work. It's
it had to have been two or three blocks away
from where we work. So I'm sitting to stop, like,
I only got to see this for a total of
about seven or eight seconds, that's maximum. So I'll describe
to to you the best I can. It was a
Chrysler three, pretty new looked like it was new. Anyways,
It was two tone. It was dark brown and beige

(02:13):
and had I don't even I didn't even remember if
it had tinted windows or anything like that. Now, two tone,
that's a little bit unusual to begin with, right, that's
a custom paint, custom all right. Well, the most unusual
part about this this vehicle was not the two tone paint.
It was the trim and the chrome work and the wheels,
and so you might ask what what was so unusual?
What was so unusual? Scott? Oh, thank you Ben for asking.

(02:35):
I thought you'd ever get around to it. Um trim,
all of it. The chrome, every single bit of chrome
was covered in crystals, as in like um they look
like diamonds, and they were well placed. It wasn't like,
you know, like one here, one there. I mean, it
was like a custom almost like like it had been
wrapped with crystals or something. It was. It was so perfect,
like like a jeweler had done it. But I know

(02:56):
that's not the case. I feel like we've talked about this.
I don't remember if it was on air off air,
though it was off air, because probably the day I
saw it, and I've got to mention this car. But
I mean I'm talking about the window surrounds, the side trim,
you know, the the the the I guess, the belt
wine that goes across the middle of the car. All
of it was crystal. The entire um um grill, the wheels,

(03:17):
I think, I want to say the wheels were covered
in it too. I'm pretty sure. And you're sure that's
not just factory Yes, when someone check that box on
Christo's order form and uh yeah, I think it's a
three option. Oh it's only three. That's pretty reasonable. Well clearly,
I mean clearly, they're not anything valuable. It's just something
that you know someone has done. But the way that

(03:38):
it was done was relatively professional, and I was thinking
this is not the way to blend in and traffic.
Just based on the description, it feels as if it
would look kind of tacky. Yeah, like you have to
nail on the head with that one. It was. It
was pretty tacky. I was did it remind you of
an art car? Um? You know, it wasn't. It was

(04:00):
so overdone that it was like that, you know, like
it wasn't. Every panel was covered with it. It was
a trim and sure, it's gaudy. Sure, it's it's it's
kind of obnoxious, obnoxious, you know, it's a little bit. Uh,
it's showing. Of course, it was the same day when
I saw it, so there's a lot of you know,
a little glints coming off of the crystals. But um,
I didn't feel like, um, I didn't feel like it
was something that um it was for everybody. I guess

(04:23):
maybe it's It's definitely definitely one of a kind here
in this area. And I've tried looking it up online,
you know, see if I can do a keyword search
Atlanta or you know this this car. So far, nothing's
popped up, but I bet it's out there somewhere. I
didn't even get a chance to see if it had
Georgia plates on it. It might be from another state,
so I don't know. Wow, yeah, unusual. Uh, you know,
this reminds me just recently. We we talked about this

(04:46):
before we were recording early I think briefly. Just recently,
I returned from New York where I got stranded for
a little while. And New York is a fantastic town
to be stranded in for for a little while as
long as you have some cool co workers. Who will
put up with your weird schedule. Thank you, Scott, by

(05:08):
the way, But I saw so many cool cars because
I was right in Manhattan, and it's so expensive to
own a car there, right that most most people who
most most people who were driving what I would consider
a normal daily driver, live somewhere else and they there's

(05:31):
a really high chance that that's their work car for
you know, lift or for uber or something like that.
But oh man, the variety of limousines alone was mind boggling.
You know. That's what I was thinking, is that it's
probably a landscape that's dominated by taxis, right, and so
so you see a lot of yellow cabs around, checker cabs,
you know, whatever the companies are. But but it's it's

(05:53):
pretty unusual to see like just amazing cars in downtown Manhattan,
I would think, right, I mean, I don't know, just
seems like it's it's mostly jammed up with with daily commuters.
But who who would really want to have, you know,
a Ferrari that feels like it's just penned up, you know,
down in downtown Manhattan. Now, I did see I did
see some diamonds in the rough I saw so I

(06:14):
saw like some classic classic cars. Yeah, and the best
one I saw was a Roules Royce no kidding, Yeah,
and were old, old dude. And get this parked on
the side of the street in between a Honda Civic
and a van. Yeah, I can't remember the van. I
think it might have been a might have been a

(06:35):
Dodge Caravan and old Rolls Royce. That's that's kind of
those are fun to see in good shape too. Oh
that's good. And I was, you know, I was going
up and looking like peeking through the windows, of course,
and uh my girlfriend politely reminded me that just because
the cars parked doesn't mean it's part of a car show.

(06:55):
It's good advice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's she's full of roses.
But um but I I have to I have to
wonder when people drive in Manhattan and listeners, ladies and gentlemen,
friends and neighbors. I know that if you have ever
driven in Manhattan, I'm sure you will remember this the

(07:18):
experience with something approaching PTSD, because it is, you know,
it's insane, just the density of people. And one of
the weirdest things is the the extent that the city
makers will go to and private companies will go to
to create parking spaces in the strangest bolt holes you

(07:43):
can imagine, you know what I mean, because they're yeah,
because they're so valuable, and because, like you said, Scott,
if somebody has a Ferrari, they shouldn't be parking on
the side of the street. And listen, dude, whoever owns
that Rolls Royce, it's it's too nice. It's too nice
for the curb. Man. You gotta if you're obviously able

(08:06):
to pay for the upkeep and the detailing, you gotta
put that thing in a garage. Well, hopefully it gets
out of Manhattan occasionally, you know, onto the open road. Yeah, hopefully,
or maybe you could camouflage it. Yeah. But okay, here's
the thing about camouflage, right, and as we kind of

(08:26):
jump into today's topic with camouflage and you know, blending in, um,
I don't think that Rolls Royce would blend in even
if it was camouflage, and the kind of camouflage that
they would likely put on it, you know, because of
you know, normal wraps or whatever that you know people
are doing now with wraps of their cars. Um, it
would it would likely just stand out even more. It
would make it, you know, draw more attention. So, um,

(08:47):
there's a there's a game that auto manufacturers play with
this camouflage, and we're gonna talk about that today. We've
got a few examples, We've got some uh, some answers
to questions. I guess, you know, why do they do it?
And uh, and what's the point? I mean, they're not
really That's one thing that I want to get out
right up here at the front of the head of
the podcast. I guess maybe now that we're what fifteen
minutes into it or something with her other stuff, but

(09:12):
it's it's not really to blend into the environment. And
that's what camouflage is typically about. I mean, we we learned,
you know, because humans learn this from the animal world. Really,
I mean that's where it comes from. If you want
to go back and man did invent invent camouflage, it
comes from the animal kingdom. And of course, you know
we've all seen examples of this. You know, the way
that certain fish are colored here in the super bottom

(09:33):
or yeah, the way they blend in certain insects are shaped. Uh,
certain insects or amphibians will resemble leaves or sticks. Yeah,
the stick like yeah, the stick creatures or whatever you
called walking sticks. Yeah, stick creatures. So we have walking
sticks and you know butterflies that look like leaves, that
kind of thing. Um, and you know, of course, gazelle

(09:55):
and you know all the other animals that blend into
their environment. That's where we get this idea. And it
did really um well you know what I shouldn't say,
I didn't really catch on. It started around World War
One and uh and I'll try to remember this exactly.
I've got a few notes here, but this is the
craziest thing if you look back, and I promise we'll
get to the cars in just a minute. But we're
kind of building up to that. So I read about

(10:17):
World War One ships, you know, like like um um
navy ships, right, and I started looking at them and
I thought, well that you know this, this can't be
right there using this really bizarre looking camouflage. And it's
called dazzle camouflage. Have you ever seen dazzle camouflage? If
I bet you have, and you don't know what it's called.
It's the it's the one that has um the geometric

(10:38):
forms all over the ships. I mean, they're they're the
craziest looking ships you've ever seen. They in no way
blend in with the ocean or the or the sky
or anything like that. They're not the gray ones that
you would think of. Uh. These are like black and
white with you know, very contrasting colors, but bizarre patterns
on them. Yeah. Like, okay, I think I know what

(10:58):
you're talking about. Most as zebra like almost as if
somebody threw a bunch of zebras in a blender and
then through that on a ship. Yeah, it kind of
looks like that. Yeah, And I mean all different patterns,
and the idea behind it was so that, uh, if
if an enemy submarine were to, you know, pop the
periscope up and take a look at the ship, it
would be confused which direction the ship was headed. It's

(11:22):
it's it throws it off. So if you look at
a ship, you can't tell where the where the bow is,
where the front end of the ship is. When when
you're you know, especially at night, maybe you know, if
you can be a little bit confusing when you're out
on the sea it's dark distance, probably, but even during
the day, during during sunlight hours, it's hard to determine
where that ship is headed. So you know, it gives
them an improper heading, you know, bearing bearing I guess

(11:43):
to to uh sneak around and attack that ship oftentimes. Uh.
You know it shows there their videos of this, you know,
you can find animations of how this all worked. And yeah,
this goes back to World War One. But um it
throws off the submarines paths so that they can't intercept
that ship off and times they'll be there'll be several
degrees off and uh, and it's it's just really an

(12:04):
interesting idea. And they had some famous artists that created
these dazzle camouflage ideas for ships, and then that carried
through World War Two. So you'll see some in World
War Two that had um uh these this uh, this
kind of dazzle um camouflage going on. So again, highly visible,
not meant to blend in, but it meant to confuse,

(12:25):
meant to distort the truth. What's really there. They weren't
seeing what they thought they were seeing. They knew it
was something. Yes, the object wasn't to make it invisible.
Object of the the object of the exercise was to
make it confusing. Yeah, very confusing, right, So for submarines
and you know, ships and other stuff, right. So, but
but during World War Two they developed this into used

(12:47):
for airplanes, which was different. It wasn't you know, the
same type of thing for airplanes, uh, and for ground
vehicles those were meant to um to blend in and
where this all comes about. And I remember I said
it started in the idea of camouflage kind of started
in around World War One. You could have been a
little bit earlier, but right around that time for vehicles, right. Well, no,
for not just for vehicles, but for people as well. Um,

(13:09):
you know, I don't know, I'm splitting off in a
couple different directions here, but but for people, when it
turned around for people was right around World War One
because the accuracy of weapons that they were using, so uh,
you know, being visible on the battlefield was not a
good thing. I mean, of course it wasn't a good
thing ever to begin with. But think about like when
the you know, the red coats and the blue coats
are fighting out on a green field, highly visible. They

(13:31):
got the white pants on and all that, right, but
they're using muskets and that was the you know, they're
not terribly accurate. You had to be right on top
of the enemy anyways, to fire and lucky and yeah
they get to us, right, had to be lucky as well,
and you had to have some prep time. Yeah, that's
right for the for the reloading procedure. The more I
think about it, it's it's pretty surprising that people hit
each other with those kind of this would be better

(13:53):
to throw rocks, big rocks, right. But but seriously, when
the rifles came around and accuracy became much better with
you know, right full versus a musket, that's when it
became you know, very um advantageous to be you know,
to blend into the background, but blend into the environment.
And that's when people started to camouflage them. You know,
military started the camouflage. So you know, ships were doing

(14:14):
their own thing, airplanes were doing their own thing, ground vehicles, people,
you know, it's all different. And when we get into um,
you know, the twentieth century, I guess, um, I think
the thing that kind of cut that out for you know,
the necessary or the need for that for airplanes because
you noticed that airplanes aren't typically camouflaged anymore. What happened
was radar became popular and and it just kind of,

(14:36):
you know, just eliminated the need for it, right, So
you know, you can paint you know, a airplanes that
it blends into the sky, but they're gonna be able
to see it anyway. The important part then becomes being
able to construct or design or engineer, either through materials
or through you know angles, the plane that can evade

(14:59):
or or somehow mitigate its appearance on radar. That's why
so many bomber planes right from the past few decades
have those really sharp, strange start angles. Before we move
on from military camouflage though, because I know we're still
I feel like this is gonna be one of those

(15:19):
shows we're always getting to the show. I just have
to say, gilly suits are amazing. You remember those, right, No,
I don't think the sniper the sniper suits. Oh okay,
those are they almost look fuzzy. Yeah, I don't know
what they were called. I I that's the first time
I've ever heard that that name. Yeah, yeah, I though
it just I think it dates back to the Scottish

(15:41):
Highlands or something. But it looks silly when the guys
are standing out, you know, on the street, like it's
not what you wear to hail a cab in New York.
But if you're in the right environment. Look at those guys.
Oh yeah, I mean you can't see them. They become
part of the terrain. Yeah, it looks. It's kind of
like those those videos you can see of an octopus
become part of an undersea rock. Oh yeah, the way

(16:02):
they change right before your eye. That's that's the way
it looks. It really does. So. But with in that case,
they're trying to blend into the environment. In the case
of the automobiles that we're going to talk about today, again,
not trying to blend into the environment. And that's what
a lot of people are confused with. You know, why
do they even call it camouflage. Well, the idea behind
the camouflage for cars, there's there's a couple of you
know things behind it that that we'll talk about, you know,

(16:24):
what they're trying to do with it. And I think
maybe we should do that. Right after the first break
from our sponsor and we're back and then we had
just mentioned that we were going to finally start talking
about automobile camouflage, right big side relief from our audience,
I'm sure. Well, I feel like we should also call it,
uh air quote camouflage. Oh that's right. Yeah, I guess,

(16:48):
not not really trying to blend in. Of course it's not.
It's not obviously it's not trying to do that. In fact,
I would say that camouflage in this case with the
test vehicles makes them stand out more, wouldn't you say?
I mean it seems like if if automakers were too
uh drive. But well, we've all seen the spy shots, right,
I mean, you've seen those cars in traffic. You stick
out like a sore thumb it's got. Sometimes they'll have

(17:09):
a bunch of swirls on them, or sometimes they'll have
just black matt uh panels placed over everything, you know,
from the from the grill to the trunk a quarter panels.
They're gonna have manufacturers plates on them typically, and you
know in in Detroit you'll see a ton of these.
As you get outside of Detroit, less and less, But

(17:30):
then you know, there's certain areas in the world where
they're gonna be testing other vehicles, Like they're gonna be
in Death Valley in California, They're gonna be up in
Northern Ontario testing for cold They're gonna be um let's see,
I think they're down here in the South testing for humidity,
you know, like maybe in Alligator Alley area in Florida,
you know that that area for humidity. Uh, they test
in in harsh environments, so they're not just in Detroit.

(17:51):
I mean Detroit is its own harsh environment in a
lot of ways, and I had a lot of ways.
But um uh, you know, you do see a lot
of these vehicles. Was in the last of course. I've
been up to Michigan several times recently, about three or
four times ago. This is back late summer, early fall. Um,
I was seeing on this one particular trip, all over town,

(18:13):
I was seeing corvettes that had the front wrapped and
the back end wrapped, but the middle was left open.
They were convertible corvettes, and I guess they were testing.
They were they were developing new product for Chevrolet, for
General Motors, um, the new Corvette. I think it was
the Corvette ZEL one or z R one. I can't
remember which one it is right now, but um, they
were they were just simply trying to mask the you know,

(18:35):
the front end treatment and the back end treatment they
were working on. Yeah. Now again, these things stand out
like crazy. I mean, the middle part is painted like
a normal corvette would be red or blue or silver
or whatever. Um, but they were all convertibles and and clear,
it's clear that something's going on. They're all manufacturers plates.
I should have snapped a photo or two of these
because they were literally I c two or three of
these a day, and there were different ones, you know,

(18:56):
as I was traveling back and forth where I had
to go, and I just thought it was really unusually
you see these these half masked cars. But there's a
reason behind that too. So manufacturers do a lot of
different things with their cars in order to hide them
in plain sight. Yeah, let's set the scene. You are
a successful auto maker, right, and you every year you

(19:21):
are always retooling cars, redoing analysis on previous models, right,
and seeing how you can get a little bit of
an edge over your competitors. This does, by the way,
lead us into the situation that we discovered in our
earlier episode on boring cars. Again air quotes boring cars. Uh, look,

(19:46):
here's the thing, here's here's the problem. If you were
an appliance maker, if you could make if you if
you make coffee makers instead of corvettes, then you can
experiment and test all the livelong day and no one
will know you're in a closed environment. Right, you control
who goes in and out of that room. And that's

(20:07):
that's something you can do with a coffee maker. That's
something you could do with a refrigerator or I don't know,
whatever I gadget is, Like you get the gist, right,
A watch, A watch? Oh perfect, Yeah, you can do
that with a watch. But when you are when the
thing you are making is like fifteen feet long, et cetera.

(20:28):
I have to be driven and has to be driven
outdoors in regions across the world, right, different uh, different
biomes for lack of a better term. Uh, and usually
in public and add to that, often in a place

(20:48):
where reporters know that you're going to be testing a vehicle,
then you have to do the best you can with
the circumstance dance as you find yourself in. That's right,
So uh, why do you have to do that? Why
can't you just say, uh, look at this like white,

(21:09):
Can you say, here's the new jeep Cherokee. It's not
coming out until two thousand nineteen, but if you want
to snap some pictures, here's your time. This uh, this
it opens the automaker up to all kinds of liability
because you might undercut the sales of your existing model, right,

(21:30):
and people would say, well, why am I gonna buy
this this thing? This model, Yeah, this is old beans
when they've just shown me what nineteen looks like old beans,
I don't know would be I like it. Let's keep us,
keep people. Yeah, I'll keep old beans. But you know
you're right. It cannibalizes the current product for the future
product because people get excited about what they see. But

(21:52):
you know what, that's okay now. He said that that's
not always the case sometimes, and one author pointed this
out here somewhere. They said, how often have you ever
seen a vehicle and you instantly loved it? He said, typically,
And I forget where this comes from, if it's autoblog
with Gelopnik, where I read it a car and Driver
or something like that. But they said, oftentimes you'll see
a new design and instantly you don't like it. It's

(22:14):
it's foreign to you, it's it's unusual. You think that
it you know they've they've wrecked the design from the
previous year. It's an all new vehicle that you just
simply don't like. But a lot of people are that
way and then they you know, as they come become
accustomed to it, as they see it on the road
a little more, they grow to like it. And there's
been a lot of cars that that's happened. For me,
I've seen you know, the launch is something and you're

(22:34):
not all that impressed, and you think, like, why the
heck did they design it like that? Why is it?
You know, it's too too high up in the air,
it's too low, it's what, you know, whatever the case,
Maybe you just don't like it initially, there's something about it,
but then you know, after a couple of months of
seeing you know them here and here and there in traffic,
you decide that's not that bad. And then later on
it's like, well, maybe I'll look into buying one of
those myself. Is they refine it or whatever they do. So, um,

(22:57):
that's not the only angle though. It's not just that,
It's that you're also you know, aside from you know,
that's an excellent point that you're you're cannibalizing current product
for future product. Possibly. Uh. The other thing is that, um,
I don't I don't know if you you're not you're
an artist. Have you ever drawn or painted anything? Or
do you? I mean, I know you write a lot,

(23:17):
You write an awful lot, right, I probably draw a
little bit better that I write. Oh no, kidding, Well,
you must be a pretty good at drawn, because I
like you writing. That's very kid. But but here's the
thing with anything like that, anything creative, anything that you do.
Typically you don't want to show that to somebody before
it's finished. Right, Yeah, you may have a revision process
of something. So and there's huge revision processes to go

(23:39):
on at automobile. Automobile manufacturers, um, you know, any any
automaker has a process that they go through where, you know,
the first thing that they put out there that they
have to test on their own test track or you know,
in internal testing or whatever they want to call it. Um.
That's it could be even last year's product that they're
putting new technology underneath. And then they've got you know,
boxes strapped to the hood you know, with with you know,

(24:01):
uh um tie downs and things like that that you
know are very unattractive, and sensors and they're antenna exactly. Yeah,
they've got all kinds of you know, um engineering data boxes.
I don't know what to call it, a flat boxes.
They're they're gathering they're gathering engine performance data. They're they're
also evaluating how the components are functioning together, probably with

(24:25):
a closer eye on any new systems. And they in
some cases are gonna just look ugly as sin because
there there are things on these cars that are never
intended to be for production. No, and they call them
test mules, and test mules are just beaten. I mean
they're they're they're the ones that just take all kinds
of abuse. I mean they get the you know, the

(24:47):
mismatching wheels, you know, and not necessarily mismatching, but the
ones that don't necessarily go with that car. They're flat
black typically so that you know, people can't see what
the new design is or it doesn't distract from whatever
else is happening. But also it's cheaper to make. Will
will we'll do the big reveal of why they use
some of the cheapest materials whenever they can. Oh yeah,

(25:08):
of course. Yeah. So you know, this is just one
phase though, so there there may be putting new technology
under old body work. That's one thing. Maybe they have uh,
you know, a pilot plant that's putting together some early
production vehicles that you know, don't quite look right yet.
They don't have everything figured out yet. The body panels
aren't exactly right, or they're made have a cheaper material
than what would be used you know, later on in production.

(25:29):
That's another thing. You know, all the all the stuff
that they have attached to it, all the you know,
the junk that they have to put on there. It's
just not attractive. It's not an attractive packages that they
put together initially. Then they start to refine it along
the way and they change, you know, the fake body
panels into maybe the real ones, but then they have
to mask the real ones, you know, and they're not
necessarily going to be painted all shiny and looking really nice.

(25:50):
Yet it's still not to that point. They're just trying
to test for things like you know, airflow over the engine.
They're trying to see to test for noise, you know, rattles,
things like that, check the gaps in between the panels.
They're trying everything. Everybody's got their hands on this car,
and this is the one that they'll take out to lunch,
you know McDonald's the drive through, but it's going to
be completely masked and everybody ends up driving this thing home.
They tell them, you know, put five hundred miles on

(26:11):
it this weekend, and put you know, three miles on
this and that's nearly impossible to do if it isn't
covered in some way. So a lot of times they will, um,
you know, cover it with what you've mentioned before, Ben,
you said that it's covered with panels, like body concealing panels,
and that's that's one thing you know that they do.
It's it's uh, it's meant to fool the eye. It's

(26:32):
meant to you know, be deceptive in the way that
you first observe the vehicle. It might look like it's
an suv, but it's actually a pickup truck. Because they've
built a fake set of panels over the back end.
It makes it look like an suv, but really there's
a pickup bed under there, which happens. That happens, it does.
Or they'll take a sedan and and make it look
like a station wagon or um, you know, something like that.
I mean, it's they can be very very deceptive about it.

(26:53):
But again it if be careful when they do this
to not you know, overheat the car by you know
closing the front end so much that you know, can't
you don't get the air flow through it. So they'll
have um areas that are not only uh you know
that that padded vinyl that you know comes on and
off with Velcrow, but they'll also have like a mesh
area that is almost like a screen that allows air
air to flow through. But the problem with with what

(27:14):
I just described is that that's very noisy. It's it's
not necessarily heavy, but it's added bulk comic vehicle. It's
tough to get around. It's it just makes it difficult
to deal with the vehicle. And it doesn't it's it's
not appropriate for every testing scenario. No, no, And they
will they will also have stuff like that on. And
this is where a lot of people don't maybe maybe
they don't know this, but even inside, Let's say that

(27:36):
you're at you know, Chrysler Ford or GM headquarters and
you're kind of in the you know, the main one
of the main areas there. Let's say it's a gathering
area where you know, guests sometimes come through, you know,
people that are in the building to you know, for
meetings or whatever it happens to be tours or something. Uh,
they are very careful about disguising these vehicles even within
their own headquarters. So uh, you know, whether that's employees

(27:57):
that might be a potential leak to the media, you know,
to to get out early shots of that product that's
coming out, or you know, it could be someone that's
just walking through from the competition and they happen to
see something that's unusual or different or new and they
take a photograph. Because everybody's carrying a phone now has
it has a camera? Is also very very time sensitive stuff.

(28:18):
You know. There's a great line from a Gelopnic article
that if you're okay with it, I'd like to read
just sure verbatim. So this is this comes to us
from author named Doug DeMuro, and Doug has a Doug's
got a little bit of style, a little bit of
pinash in his writing, and he uh he lists when

(28:42):
he's describing one of the reasons people use camouflage. Automakers
use camouflage on new models. He says, if you're launching
a new suv as Jaguar is the last thing you
want is for someone to see it two years early.
Here's why, because there has never been a car in
history that people believed was hands them when they first
saw it. This is a phenomenon I like to refer

(29:03):
to as people are idiots. Then, now that's the quote
I read. I read that article, and that was what
I was thinking of earlier when I was saying that
you don't like things until you know, after a while
and you know you're not beating over the head with
it or anything, but you know, it kind of grows
on you a little bit. And he's right. I mean,
there's honestly the problem is, you know, you see this
thing as a concept vehicle at the auto show or

(29:25):
you know, in magazines or whatever, and you get pretty
excited about it because that is the early production vers
not even early production. That's the concept version that isn't
hasn't yet gone through all the testing and development that
we talked about in some of our other podcasts. You
know how they go from concept to reality and how
many changes have to occur along the way. Yeah, because

(29:46):
of you know, the scarcity of real estate or whatever
that happens to be. I mean, there's a lot of
reasons that you know, things things are the way they are.
Remember some of the buttons we even talked about that
have to be moved around into uh, what seemed like
ridiculous places because it's just a lack of realist inside
of inside a vehicle oftentimes that you know, forces that move.
So there's there's a lot of interesting things going on

(30:06):
with you know, those cars, between when they first decided
that we're going to actually build this thing and when
they actually launched the vehicle. And that's supposed to be
when you see the car for the first time ever.
And you know what, I think we'll we'll take one
more quick break from our sponsor and we'll talk about
that right when we come back. And we're back, let's

(30:27):
not just return to the show. Let's return to our
earlier hypothetical example. Uh, you, fellow listener, thanks for tuning in.
You are again an automaker, an automaker of your choice, right,
and you have a vehicle coming up. And let's say,
let's take Doug Demarreau and Scott's earlier example and say

(30:50):
that you have Jaguar coming out in two years or something, right,
and you then have a choice. Do you want people
to see the ugly, unvarnished, you know, first or second
draft of your vehicle, or do you want it presented
at you know, the international Car show, where you have

(31:12):
the the epitome of this new suv or whatever it
might be, on your terms with your photographers, with your
press people, with your you know, your bells and whistles.
Well exactly, I mean that's that's the perfect version of it, right,
I mean, that's exactly what the manufacturer wants you to
see and how they want it displayed. And that's that's

(31:34):
the impression that they want to give out because you
only get that one chance, you get that one chance
for the first reveal, for for people to see it,
you know, with their own eyes right right there in
the flesh, like the eminem song. Yeah, perfect, Yeah, I
know exactly you're talking. I'll let it go, I'll let
it go, I'll let it go. But um but but

(31:55):
you're right, you're right. You know. The thing is those
mules that we talked about, how those are just those
cars are just unished, I mean until practically they fall apart.
And you know those cars are the ones that they
end up just destroying, you know, these test vehicles almost
always they destroy them. Um. So, so you know, you
find that the manufacturers are making a really smart move
by waiting by camouflaging them, by disguising them until the

(32:16):
point of release, you know, whatever that is. And they
and they want to carefully control that as much as
they can, and they do. They often have you know,
great first impression. But here's the complicating factor along the way. Yeah,
this is a big one. The spy photos. The spy
photos that the spy photographers. I guess these are the
people that are like the paparazzi for uh, for automakers really,

(32:37):
because they hide out in trees, they disguise themselves like bushes.
They sleep in the wild overnight, or they don't sleep,
but they just hang out overnight. They literally do this,
I mean they sleep out in you know, out in
the shrubbery, I guess. Outside of the test facilities, they
they're all over the place and sometimes they have you know,
a known spot and known lookout point, and the manufacturers

(32:59):
know where they are. They kind of expect that they're
going to get you know, the shot, you know, as
they exit their their test plant or you know, their
you know, engineering and development area or whatever it happens
to be um. But sometimes they do catch them, you know, unawares,
you know, they they see them. I think I've seen
one recently at a like a McDonald's drive through. Someone
opened the door, you know, the passenger door, and bingo,

(33:21):
there's your first shot of the interior of this car.
And that happens. I mean, it just takes a second
of of laps in someone's consciousness that you know, they're
they're being watched all the time and one of these
vehicles for something like that to happen. And that's big
trouble for the manufacturers because their new product could then
be um, you know, um, I guess, I guess I'm
even improved upon by their competitors. And that's the thing

(33:42):
is that they look at this it's like a playbook
for what they're gonna do in two years, and that
could lead to a phenomenon known as leap frogging, right,
which is when a competitor might see step one that
the rival is already taken and then be able to say, okay,
well now we can skip that and we can just
go to step two. Yeah, we know what, we know

(34:03):
what Chevy's up to over there. Let's uh, let's let's
take this our own direction, and maybe we'll have a
competitor in the field for twenty or whatever year they
want to develop this. It does happen, this leap prog.
I mean, it's it's good for the industry in a way.
It is it's bad for the industry in another way.
And that you know, they're they're mimicking each other a
lot of times, and they can get kind of in

(34:24):
a bubble or in this sort of feedback loop and
you can have another cup holder glut. I mean that's us.
But that's a great example. It's true. I mean, that's
how you end up with sixteen cup holders in a minivan, right, right,
it happened. So the thing is with these these spy photographers,
we see these photographs in magazines, we see them online

(34:46):
a lot of times. You know, they're the first spy
photo of uh, you know, the new Chevy top or
whatever it is, right, any any vehicle, doesn't matter what
it is, car, truck, a suv, even semis, you know whatever.
I'm sure this goes to every industry, but these photo
bographers sometimes, you know, it's actually really profitable. Sometimes if
you get a you know, a vehicle that is lesser

(35:07):
seen around town, I guess you know something that's kind
of unexpected, you know, the brand new uh that can
pay you know, anywhere from three up to ten thousand
dollars per photograph because it's an exclusive and exclusive scoop. Yeah,
so that's the that's the idea. But you might think, well,
a big deal. I can take a photograph of my phone,
you know, and show you you know, here's you know
what I think to be I don't know, the latest

(35:29):
wagon or whatever. Right you would think you would think.
So there's a couple of reasons why maybe that wouldn't
be as valuable to some to a magazine as would
be a photographer's photograph. Now where are we going from here?
Because there's there's a couple of things, a couple of
angles here been right. Okay. The camouflage that you see
now on cars, it's not you know, like like desert camo.

(35:51):
It's not it's not No, it's not a gilly suit.
It's not the you know, the leaf pattern that people
paint on their car, you know, with with supplies that
audit pep boys or something. It's not like that. This
is camouflage that is intended. It's designed from the very beginning,
when they're designing the panels, when they're putting everything together.
In the in the factory, in the uh, you know,

(36:12):
research and development area. They're going immediately to a team
a team of engineers that then work on the proper
camel to use on that panel, uh, for your different situations,
for different daylight situations, for uh, you know, just the
curve of the panel. They try and what they're trying
to do is they're trying to flatten the image. So
when you look at one of these, and you can
do this with just about any any car. I mean

(36:34):
you'll see some in magazines and online that have been enhanced,
and I'll describe that in a minute. But um, the
idea for the manufacturers is to flatten out all those lines,
all the detail is what's really important to manufacturers. They
test that over and over again in the factory with
shiny panels. How it's gonna look when it turns in
the sunlights, you know, uh, you know, high noon or

(36:54):
whatever the time of day is. Um, they are really
paying attention to, you know, the way the car looks
as it turns different directions, the character lines exactly, from
different heights, all that stuff, right, and that's all really
really important to the design of the car and from
a camel car. What you basically get, what you essentially
get is a flat image if you if you look

(37:14):
at it really carefully, if one that's been undoctored, and
you see you see just a flat image with very
little detail that you can pick out with your eye,
the naked eye. But you can see things like glass.
You can see, you know, the roof line of the vehicle.
You can see the hoodline of the vehicle. Um, you
can find a general shape of the car. But those
details are what's hidden in in that in the camel
and that's an art, that's a that's a true art.

(37:36):
And they work on that from day one at the manufacturers.
They you know, they go immediately over to those guys
and say, here's what we're thinking of. And you know,
the men and women in this department put together the
cameo that is best for that vehicle before they even
put it out. So it's it's all very clever how
they do it. And then the car photographers, the spie
photographs that are on the on the street or in
the trees or wherever they are. And I'll tell you

(37:57):
about an interesting story in just a minute. Um. They
they will take those photographs that they take out on
the street or from wherever, and they'll take them back
to their studio or wherever they work from, and we'll
run it through you know photoshop program. I'm sure it's
more advanced than photoshop, but they will add different contrast
levels to the photograph and they'll try to you know,
tweak it a little bit to bring out some more detail.

(38:19):
And that is what they then provide to uh, you know,
the these automagazines. That's exactly right, because it has more
detail to it, right, So they're able to manipulate the
photograph in a way that you know, they can then
see it, and sometimes they can even erase the camouflage
and then give you what looks like an early rendering.
You know, this is an artist rendition of what it
should look like. And it might be missing a few

(38:40):
creases here and there in the panels, you know, but
but in some trim, but it's essentially what the car
is gonna look like because they know the shape and
they'll probably be onto something too. And so the question
then becomes, well, why don't automakers just always keep these
matt black things covering, especially at the front end? Right?
The answer is quite simply it is not viable for

(39:02):
testing every aspect. So a lot of the pattern stuff
you see is actually a polyester, I believe, or a
vinyl that's right. Yeah, oftentimes you're right polyester. They I
think they read it somewhere that they don't use vinyl
like you might think like a like a typical rap.
A lot of them don't anyways, Uh, use a polyester wrap.
So it's like I would guess that it's a different

(39:22):
um thickness. Maybe it's it's yeah, it's lighter, it's uh,
the it's a stronger material, and it also has I
think a better temperature tolerance something like minus forty fahrenheit
to hunt to over a hundred and fifty eight. Now,
this is stuff that they're not necessarily worried about peeling

(39:43):
off of the car either, because you know this car
will be scrapped in some way, so you know, it
can be something that is relatively permanent, uh, you know,
part of this vehicle from that point on, So it
doesn't matter if it's polyester, you know, versus a vinyl
wrap that can peel off pretty easy. Um, but you're right.
I mean you see something that are just painted flat
black or something like that you know, maybe that the
point of testing where um, you know, they haven't quite

(40:05):
made it to the final the final finished panel yet,
or um, you know, maybe it's made out of plastic
when it will be metal in the future, or you
know what a carbon fiber or something like that. You know,
they don't want to start using that right away. They're
gonna start with a cheaper product. Yeah, I forgot to
mention one thing that is custom on these. In addition
to the panels, there will often be custom headlights, oh yeah,

(40:30):
which are meant to mislead you, because that's one of
the first things that you would understandably think about when
you're trying to ide a camouflaged car. You would say, okay,
well let me let me essentially, let me see the
face of the car. But automakers know they're already hipped
to it, and they work in secrecy, so they can't

(40:54):
talk to their friends, their buddies, or their their neighbors
or their family like about what they're actually doing, which
is insane. Yeah, it is pretty crazy. And then I
really do believe that a lot of those guys, if
not all of them, really are extremely secretive about it,
even with their families. They can't tell them what they're
really working on. They're they're unable to you know, talk

(41:16):
at the family functions about what the the you know,
the product that they're working on. They just can't do it.
They can talk about current products and maybe what's just
around the corner, but they're not able to talk about
something that's you know, two three years out. It's it's forbidden.
And if they're caught doing that, you can imagine that
that's a situation where you would likely lose your job,
of course, and probably you know, be blackballed from any

(41:36):
other industry job like that because you have, you know,
a pension to talk about what you're doing, and that's
what you you just simply can't do in this industry.
I feel like you'd be really good at that. I
don't know how well or poorly I would do. Really
you just you couldn't. You couldn't hold it back, huh.
I would either I would either fabricate an entire leave

(42:00):
fake double life, you know, and pretend it was a consultant,
or go back to that thing we used to do
where I just always had a series of strange side jobs. Yeah,
I remember that, but I don't. I don't know if
I could. If I could, like you know, if I
were married or something that that seems like a hard

(42:23):
thing to keep from your spouse. Yeah, yeah, it would be.
But I think that they have to. They just have
to understand that you just can't do that. You're unable
to do that. I mean, I don't. I wouldn't have
any problem with this at all. I'm an excellent I'm
a great secret keeper. I don't tell anybody anything that's
true now, I really don't. So, UM, listeners out there,
you can trust me if you want to. You want
to just let me in on your secrets, that's fine. Um,

(42:45):
I need someone to talk to. I guess I'm your man.
I should be. I should. You know, people could confess
to me, I'd be all right, Yeah, you'd be good
at that. Yeah, I think I would. Yeah, you know,
I don't give a waste of I don't tell anybody
about secrets about like, you know, if there's going to
be a surprise party. You know, sometimes people just can't
hold that in. Um, those kind of secrets. Okay, I'm

(43:05):
talking about something that you've worked on every day for years,
that's not going to come out for five years. You
know probably you know, probably to me it's I you know,
I would never work there because I would I would
want to impress girls. Well, you know, I'm just gonna

(43:26):
be honest with you. I'm sorry everybody. That's what it
comes down to. There's a reason why I cannot be
trusted to work on a prototype Mustang or Corvette. I
will try to impress girls. But isn't that element of
secrecy something that also is kind of attractive, kind of value.
It kind of draws people in. You know, you think
I get like James Bond. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know,

(43:47):
when you think about it, that guy is I know,
there's a sidebar. I don't want to keep us going
too long. But when you think about it, that guy
is like the world's worst secret agent. He drinks like
a fish, He's always telling people his real name, and
he doesn't even bother to part cars. He just sort
of wrecks them when he's done. I guess you're right.
You know, this is like a liability costing him a

(44:08):
lot of money. Well, still, I you know, I would
he would probably be able to keep the secret of
the new Mustang or the new Jaguars. Well, you know.
The good thing is that, you know, the ramp up
time on these vehicles is a lot shorter than what
it used to be, So, you know, instead of working
on product that is, you know, five years out like
we had said a couple of times, I think it's
it's more like two years out. And you know, so

(44:30):
it's a lot faster for them, a little less time
to keep that, keep that under wraps. And make no mistake,
auto makers are very well aware of what a uh,
what an advertising gold mine this stuff is. It's tantalizing.
They want you to see, they want you to be
tantalized by the possibility that the guessing the investigation right,

(44:56):
it becomes its own sort of ad campaign. Yeah, you know,
apparently there are a lot of people in Germany and
in Munich we see BMW's Camot up all the time,
and there's an entire the community of people dedicated to
figuring out what they are. I would guess in Italy

(45:18):
you see the Ferraris, the Lamborghinis, that type of things. Sure,
it just depends on your region and you know what's
nearby and what you find. I mean. But again, these
testing facilities out in Arizona and up in you know,
the northern part of Ontario, and then down in Florida,
and you know, all over the place. I mean they're
they're literally all over the world. People are testing vehicles,
new vehicles. Uh you know, that might even be the

(45:40):
Rubicon Trail for you know, jeep products. Um, they test
new new products there all the time. But again they
disguise some of the new products and that just again
that that that adds to some of the uh, the excitement.
It builds the excitement, and you know, people start to
talk about it and then you know, then they see
another version that's maybe a little bit more complete and
a little bit less camot or a little bit you know,

(46:01):
um less disguised, I guess, and they started to get
even more hunger for this thing, and they want to
see it, you know, it's real form. And then finally
when it's revealed, you know, it's a big deal. It's
it's something that you know, the manufacturer again has has
chosen that moment to reveal it in the way that
they want to and they and they do it very effectively.
People get very very excited about it. Sometimes other times, uh,
you know, something bad happens, something some people say, well

(46:22):
that it looks awful. Uh, that happens too. And again
that's going back to um, was it Doug I think
he said had said is that you know from for
Gelopnik He said, you know, sometimes you just see things
and you just don't like it initially because it's new,
it's different, it's it's foreign to you. But it'll grow
on you. Um. So that's how they that's how they
end up with the big reveal, right where they're like

(46:43):
factory factory bare bones. All of these vehicles from eighteen
on are gonna come with crystal instead of chrome. It's
would be a smart move on, something understated and subtle,
something really really simple like that. But again that's that.
I mean, that's the US to this whole thing is
that you know, um, in a way, they're controlling what

(47:04):
they do out on the streets. I mean, they know
they know that people are looking. I I kind of
often wonder, Ben if would it be better if manufacturers
were just simply to put a manufacturer's plate on some
of these test vehicles and uh and just put them
out there on camouflaged Would less people be you know
mindful of that? With a less people notice that than
they do when it's cameoed. Yeah, like how how much

(47:26):
uh does the cameo hurt or help in terms of
drawing attention? Yeah? But I mean and then you go
then you go back to you know, seeing the unfinished
version of it. So I guess that's a that's the
other that Yeah, that's a big liability. But this is
something that I didn't find. And I want to see
what you think about this, And I want to see
what you think to folks, uh, please write in at

(47:47):
car stuff at how stuff works dot com to to
let us know your opinion. As anyone or any manufacturer
tried to do sort of a fleet thing, you know,
take take different varieties of cars, right, and then mask
them all up in sort of the same way, so

(48:10):
you still totally like different cars, different body cells and
compact suv whatever, and then have have those drive out,
you know, and with the knowledge that one of those
is the actual vehicle being tested, you know what I mean.
So so you you like a decoy, yeah, like in

(48:32):
a bank heist where you know, the smart robbers run
out in the crowd of hostages, which probably only works
in movies. Probably you're right, but would have but would
have worked in a in a testing situation. I don't know, maybe,
but you know, these five photographers, they know their way around,
you know, the tricks that manufacturers play on them. And
there's one that I wanted to mention before before we

(48:54):
finish up today. Um, this comes from an article in
an Auto block and this was an inter story. Let's
tell you how far they go to get that, you know,
that ten thousand dollar shot. And this has to do
with the Ford Mustang and early development photos of the
Ford Mustang. I think it was, Yeah, that's right. And um,
of course it was before, you know, significantly before other

(49:17):
and what happened this is, this is so unbelievable and
it hints it what we had talked about earlier with
you know, doing whatever it takes to get the shot right.
Because this was a an internal Ford testing facility. You know,
this is a secured test track supposedly, and a photographer
had been on the scene the day before for some

(49:37):
other product I guess, or for something right, and had
at one point snuck off into the middle of the
track and kind of embedded himself into the foliage there.
And so there's trees, bushes, bushes, whatever you know, guardrails
hit out all night overnight in the in the bushes there,
so after they did their their check of the track,
made sure everybody's gone, you know, this guy is still

(49:58):
inside there, sleeps overnight inside the track, you know, in
the in the trees and brush in the bushes, yep.
And and in the morning, knowing that they're going to
bring out you know that this uh well, I guess
he knew. He must had a tip from someone, right
that this is happening, because why else would you sleep overnight.
But in the morning when he gets up alone, behold,
there's the brand new Ford Mustang that is uh, it's

(50:20):
it's not it's not completely disguised. It's just disguised, but
there's enough of it there that you get a feel
for the shape in the form of the whole thing.
And you know, some they probably would have taken more
precaution hadn't been out on a public street, That's all
I'm saying. And he got some great photographs of it,
and unfortunately, you know, they were really really early, but
he was essentially able to determine what mustang was gonna

(50:43):
look like long before it was put out. And you know,
of course, of the guy that's in charge of you
know that program, he is in huge trouble, has to
go right into the boss's office and explain what happened,
you know, how that happened. So I would bet from
now on, you know, someone walks around that track and
you know, really, you know, eats the bushes to make
sure that no one is in there every night. It's

(51:03):
kind of crazy that someone would go to that length,
isn't it, But but that's what they do. They camp out,
they hide, they do whatever it takes because you know
that one shot could be worth ten dollars to somebody.
And these these photographers are you know, dedicated to a
superhuman degree. There's one other thing we have to we
have to add, which is earlier. I think we we

(51:27):
mentioned that there will be some odd, almost counterintuitive corner
cutting on a lot of these vehicles, and I hope
we've done a decent job I think we have of
of showing the necessity of this testing and the intense
competition between the people who want to expose a secret

(51:49):
and the people who want to keep it. It's cat
and mouse game, it is. Yeah, that's the perfect phrase
for it. Yeah, it's a cat and mouse game. Here's
the thing, though, we haven't said what happens to these
prototypes after testing is complete. So after years of testing
for what will become Mustang, what happens to all these

(52:13):
prototypes that were almost Mustangs got crushed? All of them crushed.
That's the That's the thing. I mean, I think I
think we did mention it early on, but I don't
know if we we said it. You know, just like
with certainty that these cars get crushed because they don't
want these cars to fall into anybody's hands, because of
the way they've been treated, that the many times that

(52:34):
they've been revised and and you know gone over and
you know, the course they scrimp on in some areas
that they should have you know, taken a little bit
more care. But it's just a test vehicle. It doesn't
really matter. It's not getting into the public hands. But
it's weird that they're all destroyed, isn't it. It kind
of is yeah, I mean, but I but I get it.
I understand wanting that control because what if you know,
someone takes that and they use that as there, uh,
you know, the car to bring the kids to you know,

(52:55):
the soccer games or whatever. In the future. Um, you know,
there could be some safety concerns with that, and I
get it. I mean we've talked about automotive recalls before
and how seemingly little things can be a huge deal
to a manufacturer. And other times when some really big
things and some manufacturers are thinking, ad do we need
to do anything? Is that dinner best interest to do something?

(53:16):
And then usually they end up doing the right thing.
Usually not always. Sometimes it takes a you know, an
even bigger incident or occurrence to to you know, force
that to happen. Um, because it's very expensive for the manufacturer. Um,
there's a there's a balance that's play there. But UM, yeah,
I can see why they would want to crush them.
But it is strange to think that every one of
those camera vehicles that you see is going to be destroyed.

(53:39):
I mean, it's it's seems like a huge waste, but
you know that those cars are the ones that lead
the way for you know, maybe a million of that
car to be produced in the future, So it's not
like you know, it's gonna be worth anything. Really. I mean,
these are again, they're really beating up there. There bad
news on the inside outside. Um, they've they've gone through
an awful lot. It is is uh, yes, it is

(54:02):
not a beta. For you are literally seeing a car.
Every time you see a car camera up like this,
you're very lucky. But you're also seeing a car on
death row. Yeah. And you know, you might think, well,
they can donate them to you know, engine engineering schools
or shop classes you know that might want to tear
them apart and put them back together. The problem is again,
manufacturers can't you know, ensure themselves that you know, the

(54:24):
cars are not gonna be put back together, and then
you know the shop teacher is going to take it
home for the weekend and use it for you know,
a road trip up to uh, you know, the Ski
Mountain and it's at the northern part of the state,
you know, and it's not meant to do that. It's
meant just to be a learning tool. And of course
that's probably what they have to deal with with all
the becus. They do donate cars, but their production cars
that they donate to these these classes with specific instructions

(54:45):
you know, whether they can or can't be driven on
on public roads, and oftentimes they can't. That's why we
see things like you know, the you know, the dodge
vipers that have to get crushed and things like that.
You know that it's heartbreaking to some but then you realize, well,
that thing has probably been taking apart and put together
thirty times. That's why it has to go. And how
long would it have lasted if it wasn't destroyed? Well,

(55:06):
exactly when you don't know the quality of what's going on.
The manufacturer is the one that's responsible for because it
donated the car. They can't be responsible for, you know,
an accidental death that happens because of that vehicle or anything.
I mean, there's oh man, we're opening up a new
can of worms with this, aren't we. But but but
the camouflage thing, I mean, getting back to that, I
guess yeah, I mean I think it is pretty eye
opening and and it just it it's just adds uh,

(55:29):
I guess a little bit of clarity to it. I
guess if if you understand that they're not trying to
blend into the environment. In fact, it's kind of the opposite.
They know it's standing out, but they're just trying to
fool your eye. They're trying to fool the camera's eye.
You know, whether it's with those patterns that that caused
auto focus to not work on cameras. We I don't
think we mentioned that. Oh yeah, that's right. That's why
some of those things they may look just sort of

(55:51):
out outrageous and gaudy to the human eye, but to
auto focus on the camera, they're very confusing because the
camera doesn't know how to adjust for the vehicle continually
readjusting refocusing. Also, uh, you know, I was surprised that
there weren't any of those old magic eye designs on

(56:12):
the more those things. It was like three D pictures. Yeah,
that's okay, So those are the ones that you know,
it kind of feels like that when you look at
one of these with the current camel um, it's almost
like if you relax your eyes and you just kind
of stare at it, you know, just for five minutes,
you're gonna you almost expect to see, you know, a
dolphin or a or a ship or whatever it is.
What were those called Magic Eye? Magic? I think magic Eye?

(56:34):
And they sold him at malls, right, and yeah, like
the kiosk at the mall or something. Let's check with
our producer Tyler. That's right, isn't it? Magic Eye? Magic. Yeah, okay,
I remember those. They were popular for a while. Yeah. Hey,
they're still popular, are they. You don't have a magic
Eye poster figure? So I never bought one. I never
bought one. I didn't even get one as a gift,
you know, because they were really popular at one point. Yeah, yeah, No,

(56:57):
I I never had a poster. I think I had
a book when I was a kid that was just
various magic. I think that's cool. Yeah, you know, it
loses its novelty after a while, but it's very clever,
very clever stuff. I want to end today's episode on
a question for everyone listening, So right in and let

(57:21):
us know this this as well, and Scott it's there
is going to be another segment of Scott on the Spot,
which is a segment I just made up. Now, Yes,
Scott on the Spot. Let's get make up some music
for this. Perfect okay, awesome. Here's the question. Would you

(57:46):
sleep rough? Would you would you spend a night in
the bushes to take a photograph of a car? Dollar photograph? Yes? Yeah, okay,
ten grab yeah, I would, yes, I would. Yeah. But
the ing is I mean, you're violent, You're you're trespassing.
That's one thing. I mean, you're violating you're violating some laws.

(58:06):
I mean, and it's expressly restricted. You're not allowed to
do that on the rules of the of the test facility.
The manufacturer is gonna hate you forever. I mean, they're
not going to allow you into their inner circle of
of of trusted you know, photographers trust to that point.
For if you can't get in on the press conferences
and all that stuff that you want to, you know,
the ones that you have to sign up for, and

(58:27):
they grant you permission to come in, yeah, I think
that you're you know, officially off the list at that point,
I would think so. So then it becomes a calculation
of ten thousand dollars ten large minus legal fees if
they press charges, because they might, Yeah, and then minus
any future photography fees you could have acquired with this

(58:52):
company at least. Yeah, you're right, there's a lot to
factor into that decision. If you know, do you just
jump the fence and stay overnight or do you I
just go home with everybody else and you know, wait
another three or four weeks or three or four months
and just spy it out on the road. So you
would sleep overnight or stay up overnight, take a ten
thousand dollar picture, and then just be ready to like

(59:13):
burn your career down. You know, I said that too
soon do something else. I said that too soon. I would.
I don't think that I would. Now that, now that
I've thought about it for more than thirty seconds or
more than ten seconds, well, I guess you would. Yeah,
I'd try to get out of there. I think at
some point I would think this isn't this isn't for me.
I don't want, you know, whatever the legal ramifications of
this action would be. Um, I don't want the manufacturers

(59:36):
mad at me. I don't want the other press mad
at me. Um. They might actually give you a high five,
you know, for doing that. But you would played by
the book. I think I would play by the book.
I don't think that I would would camp out overnight
for even for a ten thousand dollar photo, Now that
I think about it, Yeah, that was like a knee
jerk reaction there that I was like, oh, yeah, I
do it. It sounds I mean, it sounds pretty adventurous too,
because I would also without those considerations, I would think

(59:58):
the same thing ten thousand dollars. So your answer is
maybe not you wouldn't do it. Well, that's the thing, Scott, see,
I am not a professional photographer. Oh so you've got
I did it as a side gig. Yeah, I would totally.
I would totally do it because in a way, that's
what the press is supposed to do. There. Inherently, the

(01:00:19):
press and these manufacturers in this situation are inherently antagonistic forces,
and that's a good thing. I think ultimately it works
out to be a good thing. I wouldn't want to
break any laws though, because dang it, I just did
the same thing you did, because I have my knee
jerk reaction. But no, I think even with a different

(01:00:41):
a different job or a different career. Um not to
be precious about it or anything, but these these folks
are working hard for years and it's uh, it seems
almost to me. It seems like I would feel like
I was being ethically questionable ye by violating that stuff.

(01:01:07):
But I'm not. I'm not condemning the people who do.
That's just my philosophy, and we have to we do
have to say that that is way that situation where
the guy snapped the Mustang pictures, that is by far
the exception to the rule. Yeah, definitely violation was occurring
right there. I mean, that was that was bad news
for that photographer, I would guess. I mean, I'm not sure.

(01:01:29):
I don't really know what happened in the end with it,
with all this, if there was any kind of legal
action taken against him or not, but likely there was.
And being a couple of hypocrites we are in this situation.
If you happen to have a picture, yeah, well here's
the thing, you know what, Yeah, but but the thing
is if if you're just you know, an ordinary Joe
Schmo and you're you're in traffic and you see something unusually,

(01:01:51):
you take a photograph and hey, what do you know,
it's the first photograph to be taken of the the
all new Ford g T forty or whatever it is. Right,
you just happened to be there, and you snap that
photograph and you show it to somebody and they say
that could be worth something, and you know, no one's
seen that yet. That's a that's a brand new product,
and you were just on a public roadway. Have at it.
I mean, that's fine, that is different, but but likely,

(01:02:13):
you know, the spy photographers have already beaten to it
because their positioned outside the gates. When these things arrive,
they know when it's coming. They've got a tip from
inside or whatever. Um it happens. And if you want
to have some fun pranking people, go ahead and just
put a bunch of black like cladding and stuff on
your own car. Just drive around and a strange part

(01:02:35):
of town. See what happens. Everything except for the manufacturer's plate.
You would you would look authentic, You would look you
would look legit. Probably will get pulled over it some probably,
But what's to stop you from getting a wrap that's
kind of, you know, just a vinyl rap. People do that, right,
and get a vinyl wrap that is is a lot
like a manufacturer's rap. People might think you're driving around

(01:02:55):
in a vehicle that's not yet released, you know that,
but you might have a five year old Honda and
and no one knows, right, they've got that impression of
you that you know you're Yeah, I don't know. It's
kind of silly idea, but maybe it might work. Yeah, yeah,
maybe maybe you know you should do it. Do you
like I'm volunteering you for stuff? No? Thanks, not for me? Well, well,

(01:03:18):
old friend, when you and I are getting to the
point of an episode where we've we've solidified uh a
hair brained scheme. It's usually a sign that it's time
for us to call it a day and hit the road,
to hit the old dusty trail. Yet, have no fear.
Scott and I will be returning next week with more

(01:03:38):
car stuff. In the meantime, if you would like to
find some car stories that have not yet made it
to the air on our show for one reason or another,
or you'd like to hear your fellow listeners car stories,
check us out on Facebook and Twitter. Work we are
car Stuff hs W and there's a new edition. What's that?
We are also now on Instagram. Oh hooray, I'll contain myself,

(01:04:05):
but you phone that with a long distance Instagram check
it out. Yeah, yeah, Instagram, we are I think we
are a car stuff hs WANT that. That's pretty new
to us, as you can, as you do many. We
need to know our name. I guess car staff hs DOT. Yeah,
well you know what one of us should check. Let's
go with that. Let's go with that. But as always,

(01:04:28):
social media platforms on a side. If you want to
let us know what you think of car camouflaging, whether
you are on the press's side or whether you're on
the manufacturers side, we'd love to hear from you, and
you can always write to us directly. We are car
stuff at how stuff works dot com. For more on

(01:04:51):
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