Faurecia’s Active Wellness® Innovative Seat wins 2017 German Design Award
Faurecia, one of the world’s largest automotive equipment suppliers, will be awarded for its innovative car seat Active Wellness® at the 2017 German Design Award in the category “Human-Machine-Interface“. The prize will be handed over during the official event on February 10, 2017 within the “Ambiente“ fair for consumer goods in Frankfurt-am-Main (Germany). The innovation is part of Faurecia’s strategy to become the leader in the cockpit of the future and completely redefine sustainable mobility. In the past, the company has already won the sought-after German Design Award several times, in particular for its interior concept “Performance 2.0“.
Faurecia’s expertise in seat and vehicle interior architecture, mechatronics and comfort and its ability to work with best in class partners for data collection and management make it uniquely placed to develop systems such as Active Wellness. Faurecia has the ambition to become the leader in sustainable mobility and the cockpit of the future and is focusing in particular on the driver or vehicle occupant experience for different autonomous driving situations. Our aim is to ensure optimal comfort and safety at all times by merging biometric data, predictive analysis and the connected vehicle into an integrated technology for well-being
The Active Wellness® seat is the world’s first system that recognizes stressed and tired passengers and offers countermeasures. Contactless sensors integrated into the seat analyze vital parameters of the passengers, e.g. the heartrate or breathing activity, and therefrom derive individual data in real time. In particular situations, the seat then offers countermeasures to the driver. For this purpose the seat comes with a clever range of assistants: integrated massage pads, a sophisticated cooling system, automated position changes of the seat including profile settings and a control unit providing relaxation or refreshing tired passengers. The technology is available for all seats in the car and changes long rides to a short wellness holiday.
Faurecia’s latest innovation, Active Wellness® 2.0, has been presented recently at the Paris Motor Show. Active Wellness® 2.0 is an intelligent seat of the second generation which measures a dozen of the driver’s biometrical data and behavioral characteristics by integrated sensors and optical devices. It is able to counteract drowsiness or stress of the driver and to prepare him for taking over the car again after leaving the autonomous driving mode. Active Wellness® 2.0 is an early example of how the cockpit of the future will offer more and more forward-looking functions by monitoring the passengers and by means of predictive data management.
The German Design Award labels innovative products and projects, which are state of the art in the German as well as in the international design landscape. The prize is awarded annually by the Rat für Formgebung. This organization has been established as foundation by an initiative of the German Bundestag and supports companies in gaining consistent brand-added value by design. The Rat für Formgebung is one of the world’s leading competence centers for communication and brand leadership in the field of design. Besides trade associations and institutions, the network of the foundation members especially consists of contents and brand leaders of reputable companies.
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