While at this year’s Detroit Auto Show just recently, I had our own Mercedes Streeter shoot pictures of the front ends of as many cars and SUVs/Trucks as possible, so I could undertake this experiment. To that end, I got 43 car front end pictures to average together, using the magic of math, and I think the results are pretty fascinating. Want to see? Of course you do. So here we go:
I did these averages two ways, the mean and the median. The mean face (not to be confused with a mean face, like the kind you can buy for your Jeep if your mother didn’t love you) is what we think of when we think of an average, generally: take everything together, divide it by how many everythings you put together, and the result is the mean. In the case of images, we’re doing that with the pixel color values of the image, and the result is what you see above. The other method used was the median, which basically looks for what values end up in the middle of the set of data, and this is the result that method of averaging gave me:
Overall, pretty similar results, really. It seems that the average car face for model years 2022 to 2023 is fairly wide and blunt up front, with a high hoodline and a wide grille. There’s a pretty even split between grilles that are, well, pretty evenly split, with some being bisected horizontally by the bumper bar area, and some forming a tall, unbroken area. Grille textures are quite prominent as well, averaging out to a sort of honeycomb-looking pattern. Central-grille badges are common enough to show up fairly prominently even after all the averaging, too. Front lighting units are pushed out quite far to the outer corners, and seem to be creeping higher up into the fenders. The average color is interesting, settling into a sort of dusty pink, with faint yet exiting hints of stripe kits and contrasting-color hood bulges. I’ve actually been doing this experiment off and on for a few years, so we can see how things have changed over the years:
There’s a lot of interesting things going on here; first, it seems the average of the colors always tends to end up a warm pinkish-peachy-ruddy-something. It also looks like grilles have become less prominent lately, something I attribute to more EVs being in the mix, as those cars tend to de-emphasize their smaller and less-prominent grille areas. I also think car face homogeneity was peaking around 2017, which is why that year seems to have a more coherent face; more cars simply had similar grille and headlight shapes, where now I think we’re seeing more deviations than before, with more risks being taken and some less conventional design decisions occurring. I’ll have a follow-up post with SUV and truck faces coming soon, and I expect to see some similar trends; while there are definitely some expected traits – huge grilles, for example – there are a number of prominent, especially EV, vehicles that buck this trend, so the results should be interesting. You know what the average 2022/2023 car face kinda reminds me of? A Jaguar XK:
Kinda? Is it just me? Anyway, I’m curious to hear your thoughts, as always. ALWAYS. ALWAYS.” Umm…I hope this doesn’t mean you can hear my thoughts when I’m not posting them, but I’m afraid of that answer. As to the car faces, I really like that we have a smaller average grill, even though that result is probably skewed by electric. And I very much do not like the mean Jeep face. Why would someone want a perpetually mad, probably abusive Jeep? Well, except David, but his expresses that via repairs needed, not facial expression. Car front ends sure seem to prize menacing right now…there aren’t as many graceful/athletic looks anymore. Is it b/c fewer car models each year due to the carpocalypse? Car designers channeling rage at the dying of the sedan? Self-sorting buyers? (e.g. family vehicle shoppers head to crossovers, leaving Vin Diesel fans to mumble why can’t the Charger’s windows be even darker) ….wait….
- I am overthinking it and each time I look, my brain sees something different, or
- All cars are starting to look the same and individualism is dead. I suspect the answer really lies somewhere in the middle. But for this car show, companies have to show some attempt at color to make their car at least partially stand out, thus the dusky pinkness. They do these things with people too – specifically races.A quick internet search will find it. https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/8/8b/Vlcsnap-2012-12-19-08h49m13s124.png/revision/latest?cb=20121219162916 I’d be curious if you increased or decreased the strength of the picture layer based on numbers of the given car sold what the average new car would look like as opposed to every car just getting an equal share at the image.
