‘Shape-shifting’ seats by Jaguar to tackle health risks

Another innovation in the automobile industry is on its way as Jaguar Land Rover announced its new project. ‘Shape-shifting’ car seats are the latest talk of the town after Jaguar’s announcement a couple of days ago. The reason cited for developing this ‘morphable’ seat is the looming health risks that come hand in hand with sitting for too long.

The Announcement

The announcement was made via Jaguar’s official Twitter handle –

“Our engineers are developing a ‘morphable’ seat to tackle the health risks of sitting down for too long. The pioneering shape-shifting technology uses a series of actuators in the seat to create micro-adjustments that make your brain think you’re walking.”

The Reason

Just as quoted above, sitting for long periods of time, does have negative effects on our health. According to WHO, over 1.4 billion people worldwide, are living increasingly sedentary lifestyles.
Needless to say, it’s extremely unhealthy and can result in problems like shortening of leg muscles, hips and chronic back pain. Weakened muscles also increase the likelihood of sustaining injuries.
But how would these morphable seats help with the problem?
By simulating the rhythm of walking, even while sitting in the car, these ‘shape-shifting’ seats can help mitigate against these conditions.

Jaguar also issued a guide to perfect driving position, which can help reducing the pressure points, thus resulting in a more comfortable experience with less health risks.
Moreover, this is just one Jaguar Land Rover’s research projects. Some of its previous projects included reducing the effects of motion sickness and the use of ultraviolet light technology to stop the spread of colds and flu.

The Reception

After the announcement, a number of opinions flooded the comment section on Twitter. Though some people seemed a bit skeptical as to how this ‘mechanism’ would exactly work, there were a lot of supportive and excited comments too. And of course, the classic trolls made their presence known too. All in all, the new announcement was quite well-received.