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q Because child safety seats are big and unwieldy, especially for people on the move, designers
at the Volvo Monitoring and Concept Center in Los Angeles developed the Infatable Child Seat
Concept. Yes, it is a full-size seat that includes an integrated pump and when defated can be
carried in that bag on the right. It weighs less than 11 lb., including the pump.
u Volvo began work on
child safety seats back
in 1964. (Notice the
early version of what is
evidently a crash-test
dummy in the rear seat.)
Los Angeles. The father of two, Abele said, "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."
So the rearward-facing seat is infated—in less than 40
seconds—by an integrated pump, which also quickly defates
the seat. The entire package weighs less than 11 lb. and can
ft within a weekend bag. It even has a Bluetooth connection
that permits remote-controlled infation.
Speaking of the seat's construction, Maria Hansson, project
manager at the Volvo LA facility, said, "We used a unique
material called drop-stitch fabric when creating the prototype
of the seat. This fabric is very strong when infated 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 efort to develop infatable airplanes."
From steel to sensors to seatbelts to seats: Volvo clearly means
"safety."
0614ADP FEATURE Volvo.indd 33 5/21/2014 12:52:55 PM