BMW launches the third generation of X6 cars using Vantablack paint in which carbon nanotubes are used to make it the darkest color in the world. This paint introduced in 2014 is devoid of any common pigment and is comprised of a dense network of CNTs. Grown in a heating container, this color can absorb 99.96% of the light.
Applying this nano-color on the body of BMW X6 makes it hard to be seen. It is believed that this paint set this car apart from other luxury marques such as Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, and even Ferrari. This German automaker giant will unveil this product next month at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
A few years ago, BMW had asked Surrey NanoSystems Company which is the Vantablack designer to use this color in the outer space of a BMW car.
According to Ben Jensen, founder of the Surrey NanoSystems, this color is capable of absorbing more than 99.9% of the incident light and has very little reflection which makes it extremely black. This color was previously used by NASA to produce space cameras to take the sharper images of distant stars and galaxies.
Using this color has made the car looks like a two-dimensional image in a magazine that does not have proper photo lighting. However, this dark color offers a better view of the car's headlights.
Fast magazine journalist Mark Wilson has said: “At Google’s top secret materials lab, I recently gazed upon a sample of Vantablack in real life for the first time. It almost broke my brain. It has no reflection, no contours. It’s like part of the world has been Photoshopped away. Stare at it long enough, and it feels like your soul is being sucked out of your eyeballs.” However, safety studies have shown that black cars are less safe than colored ones as the chance of crashing a black vehicle is 47% higher at dawn and dusk.
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