Volvo Designs Safer And More Comfortable Seats
Published: 27th November 2003
Like Volvo, the Swedish insurance company, Folksam, also compared real-life accidents, and showed that WHIPS seats reduced whiplash injury by 40 per cent. Folksam also crash tested seats from different 2003 cars and Volvo seats were considered the best, with an overall whiplash injury reduction in the region of 50 per cent possible, if all cars had seats as good as Volvo.
Continuous Development
Since it first consulted medical opinion on the ergonomics of seat comfort in 1964, Volvo has established a reputation for excellent seats and now has a dedicated team of 20 people developing new ones - 11 working on front seats, nine on the rear ones.
Of course, Volvo’s ergonomics team not only design seats but also consider physical considerations such as door openings, seating geometry, ease of access to controls and the driver’s interaction with them.
As a result, a new feature, ‘IDIS’ - Intelligent Driver Information System – is being introduced in the all-new Volvo S40. This helps to avoid the driver being distracted by detecting if the driver needs to pay full attention while performing a manoeuvre or braking, for instance, and delays signals or non-safety related peripheral information until the situation is calmer.
In addition, Volvo’s recent Safety Concept Car showcased some future thinking on seat design and ergonomics with a sensor to measure the height of the driver and automatically adjust the seat and controls (including pedals and gear lever) to give the optimum position for a good view of the road and instruments.
