Honey, I shrunk the kids’ seat! That’s a comic version of an introduction to a smart technical solution to bulky child protection seats unveiled by Volvo Cars this week. The inflatable rearward-facing child seat concept uses “groundbreaking technology” says the Chinese-owned Swedish safety icon and “explores the future of child protection”.
The seat is the brainchild of Lawrence Abele, Design Manager at the Volvo Monitoring and Concept Center in Los Angeles. Father of two, Abele’s design features an innovative integral pump system that inflates the seat silently in less than 40sec.
The total weight of the seat is “less than 5kg” says Volvo and is also Bluetooth controlled. Volvo says the seat can stow easily in a pouch in the vehicle (possibly within the main seat itself) and “fits into a weekend bag together with other necessities for your child”.
“For me, child safety is always the number one priority and when we lived abroad with two toddlers we had to haul bulky child seats through airports and then into taxis. For many, travelling with young children is a challenge; any assistance to simplify the parents’ life with young children is a great thing,” Abele stated.
Volvo says the seat is suitable for use in your own car and “is also very convenient when travelling by taxi, rental car or bus, situations where you historically had to rely on the safety measures available”.
The prototype seat features “a unique material called drop-stitch fabric”.
Says Maria Hansson, Project Manager at Volvo Monitoring and Concept Center in Los Angeles: “This fabric is very strong when inflated as it can be brought to a very high internal pressure. It is a quite common technology in the boating industry and was originally developed by the military in an effort to develop inflatable airplanes”.
The seat is rearward facing. Volvo states this is the safest way for children under 3-4 years of age to travel.
"Actually, it would be better for all of us to travel facing the rear but given how cars are designed nowadays it's not feasible. Young children, however, can and should travel facing the rear of the car as long as possible", says Lawrence.
“The goal was to design a seat as safe, or safer, than anything on the market right now, but second to that I want everyone, including kids to be exposed to great design every day."
Volvo claims it is celebrating its 50th anniversary of “dedication to protecting the smallest and most vulnerable car occupants” in 2014.
“This ground breaking work started with the world’s first rear-facing child seat prototype in a PV544 back in 1964,” the company claimed in a press release today.