A recent report on automotive seating by Automotive World revealed four key areas that are driving the industry and posing challenges to suppliers and OEMs alike: safety, autonomous vehicle technology, individualisation and lightweighting.
We spoke to the main automotive seating suppliers to discuss the megatrends that will be shaping car seat innovation over the next decade, including Alcantara, Brose, Johnson Controls, Lear, Magna and TRW.
Follow this link to download the report
The way suppliers are approaching the seating of the future is best summed up by Oliver Becker, Executive Director Process Innovation, Advanced Product Development & Sales at Johnson Controls (JCI) Automotive Interiors, who told Automotive World: “We have to ask ourselves, ‘What’s next?’ to initiate innovations that continuously exceed customer expectations in terms of individuality, ergonomics, comfort, safety and sustainability.” It is expected that passengers will be able to interact in a more social environment – much like a domestic living room.
Autonomy: forward looking, if not forward facing
The time drivers and passengers spend in their cars, and what they do with that time, is changing with the development of autonomous drive technology. This increases the freedom for drivers to take their hands off the wheel and their eyes off the road.
Swamy Kotagiri, Chief Technical Officer at Magna, told Automotive World that “the thought process of what is expected from a seat might change.” He expects this to involve increased modularity, and instead of using fixed seat rails, Magna is looking at innovating to allow the driver the option to turn to face other vehicle occupants.
Andreas Maashoff, Director, Industrial Design and Craftsmanship and Consumer and Market Research at JCI Automotive Seating, told Automotive World that where the car can drive, brake and steer itself in certain situations – such as a traffic jam or on a motorway – “drivers will be able to lean back slightly or take their hands from the steering wheel,” he anticipates.
Safety first
Lear supplies automotive seating and electrical distribution systems, and believes the ‘intelligent seat’ it is developing addresses the needs for comfort and posture, but also safety, as Ray Scott, Executive Vice President and President of Seating at Lear, told us.
Suppliers must now prepare for the prospect that front seat occupants might be able to turn their seats around to face other passengers, altering the effectiveness of tried and tested safety technologies like airbags and seatbelts. Andy Whydell, Director Product Planning for Global Electronics at TRW, told Automotive World the protection of rear seat occupants in particular is a challenge.
Individualisation: the living vroom
Style trends from consumers’ home and working lives are transferring into the car as an extension of their personal style. This demand for personalisation is prompting suppliers to provide OEMs with greater customisation of seat technology and aesthetics. OEMs are looking to differentiate themselves from their competition and offer something that makes a vehicle unique and allows the consumer to appear unique amongst friends and family.
Advances in technology are making premium quality products available for mainstream applications, increasing consumer expectations for premium-like seat functionality and materials in mass-market vehicles. As the premium market booms, so too does its supporting cast of suppliers – enter Alcantara, which produces a high-quality composite material used in luxury and premium seating.
Lightweighting: looking comfortable
Keeping both weight and cost down is a topic of discussion for all players in the automotive industry. For Johnson Controls’ seating division, alongside this is the need for the increased integration of technology within the seat.
Seating manufacturers are also looking at how weight can be reduced without compromising comfort. JCI’s Maashoff says that “a thicker seat is not necessarily more comfortable – it might just look more comfortable.” And Faurecia is developing new technologies to reduce vehicle weight and allow OEMs to offer more capability and performance, including a lightweight front seat that uses advanced materials.
Seating plays a greater role in driving future mobility than media coverage might suggest, and autonomous vehicle technology is certain to have a heavy influence on the vehicle interior of the future.
Follow this link to download the report
Freddie Holmes
