Sony Wants You To Smell the Burger Ads You Drive Past

Imagine passing a Burger King billboard and your car briefly smells like a Whopper. Sony just applied for a patent that would do exactly that: detect ads near a vehicle then pump associated scents right into the cabin.^[1]

And it gets worse. The proposed setup would also use an interior camera to estimate each rider’s age and gender, then use that decide which seats receive the smell.^[2]

The good news is this is just a proposed patent, which means it's miles away from even being built, and may never come to fruition at all. Still, the fact that a massive company like Sony is even considering something like this is telling of how far companies are willing to go for advertisement.

Thanks for subscribing!

Please check your email for your first message.

Never miss the privacy news that affects you.

Join thousands who get the latest security news, scams, and policy changes every week, right to their inbox.

Sign me up

By submitting this form you agree to receive emails from All About Cookies and to the privacy policy and terms.

Sony’s burger-smell car ad patent, explained

The USPTO filing lists Sony Group Corporation as the applicant who filed on July 7, 2026.

Its core claim describes a scent output unit and a control unit that “selects a scent to be output on a basis of an advertisement” and sends it through the scent unit. The abstract describes choosing a scent based on an ad detected from an image captured by a vehicle exterior camera.

In one example, Patentlyze reported that a vehicle spots a registered burger billboard and releases a hamburger scent from a built-in unit. The scent hardware can include cartridges and a blower that pushes scented air toward a seat.

The filing isn’t limited to billboards. The proposed system can also work with ads playing on a TV, radio, or phone in the car, including by matching a channel, website, or airtime.

It can also use more context before releasing a smell. A vehicle-facing exterior camera could detect ads such as signboards, displays, and digital signs, then check a scent management server for registered ads. The system can compare the ad’s position and direction with the vehicle’s GPS location before deciding whether to release a scent.

The ads will target you by using cameras inside the car

In the patent application, the proposed system can use an interior camera to estimate each rider’s gender and age.

Registered ad entries can include validity dates, allowed times of day, a rider profile, and a scent duration such as 30 seconds. Those rules can determine which seats receive the scent.

The proposed system is described as detecting a billboard outside the car, reading who is sitting inside, matching that information to ad rules, and aiming the output by seat. The scent could even become stronger as the vehicle gets closer to a sign. It also doesn’t mention a way to switch the system off.

The filing says taxi companies and other carriers could collect an advertising fee from advertisers for scent placements. If a system like this were ever built into taxis, ride-hail vehicles, or internet-connected cars, passengers would have no choice but to endure this next-level advertisement.

Why this may never reach your commute

This is still a patent application, not a Sony product announcement. The application status is “Waiting for an examiner,” and a published patent application doesn’t mean Sony has built, announced, or will ever sell a car scent advertising product.

The filing also describes non-ad examples. A vehicle could release a signature scent when the engine starts or a rider’s preferred scent when they get into a taxi.

Those examples show the filing is broader than burger billboards. At the same time, the ad examples are explicit enough to raise a plain question for future vehicles: Will riders get clear control if cars start using cameras, location, media activity, and scent hardware to deliver sensory ads?

Bottom line

Sony’s filing points to a future where cars could turn ads into smells, and where the bigger privacy issue is the camera watching who is in each seat.

For now, there’s no Sony car scent ad product to opt out of. This is a published patent application, not a rollout, but it shows how in-car advertising could become more personal if systems like this ever make it into real vehicles.

Take Control of Your Online Privacy

5.0

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Editorial Rating

Claim Deal

On Incogni's website

2026 Editors’ Choice

Best Overall Data Removal Service

Privacy Protection

Incogni

BLACK FRIDAY: Get 58% Off Annual Plans With Code: COOKIE

• Top-rated data removal service that scrubs your info from 420+ data broker sites automatically
• Independently verified by Deloitte, meaning removals are actually sent, confirmed, and not just claimed
• The Unlimited plan extends coverage to 2,000+ additional sites with human-assisted custom removals

Author Details

Kalleigh Lane

About the Author

Kalleigh Lane is the Managing Editor at All About Cookies, where she helped develop the site's star rating system for product reviews and specializes in testing VPNs, ad blockers, and parental controls on Android and PC. She brings more than five years of experience editing and writing across cybersecurity, tech, and finance, and she has authored and edited over 300 articles for All About Cookies. Before joining AAC, she worked as a journalist and editor at CTV News and the Globe and Mail, and she holds a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Toronto.