Sitting pretty

Aesthetics merge with safety and ergonomics in that “simple” yet essential automotive system: the seat.

Americans spend a lot of time in their cars. According to a U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey released last year, workers spend more than 3.2 billion minutes commuting to their jobs on a given day. Time spent on buses, trains, and other modes of transportation are included in this aggregate, but a large portion of those minutes are drivers behind the wheel of their own vehicle, their rear ends firmly implanted in cloth or leather-wrapped seats.

Fortunately for those commuters, and for other drivers/passengers the world over, today's seats are more safe, comfortable, and flexible than ever before. And tomorrow's seats will undoubtedly include further advancements on all those fronts, thanks to the continuously advancing R&D work at automotive seating manufacturers.