#1734: ShySeats

Today’s invention is an extra safety feature for cars of the future.

Each vehicle would have sensors capable of predicting a collision with another one (eg by monitoring exterior air pressure for local spikes).

Seat units, each including an integral shielded footwell, would be suspended between floorpan and roof interior on a pole. Each pole would be locked in place within a network of tracks until a collision was about to occur.

Then, the poles would be freed to move along the tracks. Drive units would force the seats into a cluster in the opposite corners of the cars, thus keeping occupants from forming a crumple zone.

The cluster would take on a shape determined by the seats themselves, in their attempt to minimise the total potential damage to the passengers.