The Problem
Cigarette smokers make their automobiles unpleasant and unhealthy for non-smokers. The smell surely has a negative impact on resale value as well.
The Opportunity
Develop a ventilation system that reduces the amount of lingering smoke in the passenger cabin.
The Insight
Roof pillars can be tubular to increase strength for added protection in rollovers, which allows them to double as air ducts.
The Execution
Move the ashtray from the center column, where it ordinarily sits out of easy view, necessitating drivers to divert their attention from the road, to the 2 o’clock* position, between the windscreen and door window, thus enhancing safety and moving lit cigarettes away from passengers. By incorporating a powered fan to pull smoke up and out of a roof vent, the amount of smoke build-up is vastly reduced, as is the instance of ash covering interior surfaces.
The Selling Point
Cold and/or rainy days no longer would produce the miserable condition of huddling at a cracked window in order to vent the car while assuaging the nicotine gods. This approach would also minimize the impact of secondhand smoke on the health of regular passengers, which are often the driver's own children. Rental cars would be more accommodating to non-smokers as well.
The Incidental Benefits
A ceramic lined receptacle could allow a butt to be dropped into the ashtray while still lit. The lack of ash build up might also encourage smokers to break another terrible habit – that of infuriatingly throwing butts out of their car windows – by making the currently dirty task of emptying an ashtray much cleaner and easier. The resulting reduction of litter and avoidable roadside fires allows this concept to positively impact society in general.
This design modification probably wouldn't be cost effective here in the United States, since the smoking population is steadily shrinking. I am reasonably certain, however, that smokers still represent a large market internationally, and therefore an option of this sort could very well pay dividends, both financially and otherwise.
And finally, though I don't expect compensation or credit for sharing my "Million Dollar" idea, that doesn't mean I would have a problem with either! Please be sure to visit my website and blog dedicated to discussing and disseminating this concept. www.howzabout.org Thanks!
*Since car makers that are the most likely to be receptive of the idea would be European.
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Can the passengers reach the ashtray? Is the 2 O'clock position for when the driver is on the right side of the car?
Any accommodation that makes smoking more acceptable should be discouraged. The habit is a plague for both addicts and the entire health system and it has takes vital funds from other pressing health needs. The habit should be made as offensive as any technology could manage. This is a move in the wrong direction.
My guess is that if this were ever to be implemented, it would be as a "Smoker's Package" that would be installed on both sides of the car. My best reckoning is that this would be embraced in Europe but not here in the States (witness comment 2!), so I wrote it up as though the driver was sitting on the right rather than the left.
I agree smoking is a terrible habit, but for the time being it seems here to stay, especially on the international front. If this concept were realized, it would have a cumulative positive effect on the health of non-smoking passengers, which I believe to be a step in the right direction, and perhaps have a small beneficial impact through litter reduction as well.
Sand does not live in the states. Most smokers seem to be okay with the smell, I'm not sure they'd pay more when the smoke is akso there before & after the ride. I'd love to see less litter, but I'm not sure who would buy it.
The moment I hit the Submit button I knew that I had made an assumption about Sand that was going to bite me in the rump. My bad. A good example of why it's probably best not to attempt to counter every criticism.
My concept is just a thought, and I really do believe in the marketplace judging its worth, but it is surprisingly hard to keep from feeling defensive! I guess I think the existing set up is pretty rudimentary, and that it contributes greatly to people somehow feeling it is OK to just use the world as their ashtray. Perhaps the solution isn't as practical or marketable as I might like, but at least it is more elegant.
Evidently I have acquired the reputation of a critical terrorist. I just try to make sense. I grew up and lived half my life in New York City. During a good deal of my childhood both my parents smoked heavily. They both died horribly of cancer. I don't wish that on anyone. Anything that, in the least way, makes smoking acceptable contributes to someone's horrible death. I cannot approve of encouraging this.
I think there should also be little slots or holes on the sides, where heroin addicts could store their syringes.
BTW, it has been shown that smoking in cars is a big cause of accidents. Maybe an accident victim will sue some car company for encouraging smoking, and they will stop putting the stupid things in cars.
I think smokers become overly desensitized to litter, too. Every stop in my commute, the medians of the intersections are covered with cigarette butts. Why don't they put them in the ash tray? I don't understand people intentionally littering.
If they say "they're biodegradable", that's like a five-year process. I gotta look at butts for five years?