Chevrolet develops Safety Alert Seat

Knowledge plays the most important measure to avoid accidents while driving. Any driver and every driver, no matter how good you are, sometimes do make misjudgements while driving on the road. The sheer objective of Chevrolet’s patented safety seat is to warn drivers through a vibrating seat. Although exclusively designed for the luxury line of General Motors cars, such as the 2015 Silverado, Suburban and Tahoe, the system is soon expected to make in lesser mortal cars. “Safety technologies are only as effective as customers’ willingness and ability to use them,” said GM Active Safety Technician, Raymond J. Kiefer.

“If the Safety Alert Seat encourages our customers to receive crash-threat alerts or give hearing-impaired drivers an opportunity to experience such alerts, we think that’s good for them as well as other motorists”, he added.

Camera’s in front of the vehicle detect the vehicle is leaving a lane without an active turn signal in that direction, small motors generate a vibration pulse in the left or right seat bolster that directs the driver’s attention to the side of the lane encroachment. A vehicle equipped with forward collision alert technology detects if the driver might collide into the vehicle ahead and makes both sides of the seat vibrate. Drivers also may choose beeping alerts instead of seat vibrations if needed.

Safety Alert Seat was designed to give customers an alternative to auditory alerts such as beeps, as well as to give hearing-impaired drivers an opportunity to experience crash avoidance system alerts. Chevrolet’s Safety Alert Seat uses haptics, a tactile feedback technology that re-creates the sense of touch by using left and/or right “tapping” vibration pulses to direct the driver to the location of a crash threat.