- My selected opportunity was the lack of a comfortable and safe way to be harnessed in a car while lying down.
- Currently, all cars have standard upright seat-belts that are tested to improve the chance survivability in the even of a crash.
- I would like to create a product that will allow backseat passengers to go from sitting upright to a lying down position, either on their back or on their side, while remaining harnessed by a seat-belt. Such a product would, of course, have to be approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and comply with the regulation stated by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
- While my idea is fairly simple in concept, the application/implementation of it can be done in two ways:
- Replace standard seat-belt design: This to me was the most ideal implementation of my idea, because it could be added into all newly made cars. It would be a design that can harness an upright person, and then adjust to harness a lying down person through the touch of a button, etc. While ideal in terms of business, this is the least likely outcome due to the difficulty and possible impossibility of altering the view of car manufacturers and the government on seat-belt standards, as well as the change/increase in liability.
- Custom seat-belt attachment: This version would have the same effect, except it would be bought by the customer separately as a third-party modification. It would simply attach to the standard seat-belt and utilize the same buckle, but would be designed specifically for lying down, meaning it would have to be easily detachable if the passenger wanted to return to an upright position. This version is easier to adapt to regulation, and also more likely to be adopted due to liability reasons.
- Both versions above would of course have to be safety tested just as a standard upright seat-belt would be tested.
- With technology changing so rapidly as it is today, and with the possibility of driver-less cars in the future, this simple redesign of a very overlooked feature, could be used by everyone. In a future were cars drive themselves wouldn't it be nice to lie down in the backseat and safely take a nap.
Friday, September 29, 2017
Solving The Problem
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Hey Owen,
ReplyDeleteI think your idea for a product definitely has a chance. Again, in my opinion it would be better as an adapter and here is why. I believe that while it would be useful in new cars then that limits your market. If you made the adapter then this would apply to anyone that owns a car, not just those that would have it as an option in a new car. This I believe would greatly increase your market and this is what I am finding I will be doing with my product. I will adapt the design in order to increase the market.
Thanks, Zach L.
Good Afternoon Owen,
ReplyDeleteYou addressed some of my questions in your first post. So this will be a product the consumer buys and installs themselves. That is a great way to market the product. One down fall I see in you plan, and you addressed this a little bit, is driverless cars. So with ever evolving technology, and the car market moving to driverless cars, do you think the need for even having a seat belt will be there?
Zach
Owen,
ReplyDeleteMany people riding in cars are not comfortable because of the restricting seat-belt. I could see that there could eventually be a product that could come out for passengers if it did meet the standards. I like how you gave two different scenarios one being the attachment and the other being just a new design. With the technology changing you are correct this might be a feature in the future.