http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32886000

I watched a documentary about these new alloys. Many different options are being investigated. Some will recover with heat or cold. I can imagine body shops having a drive-in freezer to straighten sheet metal or park your damaged ride until winter. Self healing crumple zones. I doubt we'll see this in cars anytime soon. Maybe NASCAR could lead the way. It would make interesting pit stops.

So, if you take a sheet of the alloy and press/deform it into the shape of a car fender, what keeps it from turning back into a flat sheet of the alloy?

Dennis

That's an excellent question. Unfortunately, I don't recall the documentary covering that aspect. They did show a car body panel that had substantial damage, repair itself in a sub zero temperature. I wonder if you dropped the temp. too far, you wouldn't end up with a flat sided flat topped vehicle resembling the Cube.

Maybe the memory alloy experiences temporary amnesia until it's formed into a useable shape.   ::

Dennis

I'll bet they submerge it in alcohol to induce the amnesia. Works on humans too.

Im thinking valve and suspension springs might benefit from something like this.  Also those damn springs on the AA battery holders..

That concept has been around for quite some time: