Baby On Board: Volvo XC90 SUV Puts Baby On A Pedestal With Specially-Designed Front Car Seat
Car seats can be a huge pain. Have you ever tried installing one or taking one out? What about the million different buckles and locks, designed to keep your child safe in the event of a collision, which make it seem like you’re strapping a strait-jacket on your kid. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a car that was designed specifically with the baby seat in mind? Maybe even one that was designed around the car seat itself?
The answer is yes, it would be nice and we have Volvo to thank for stepping up to the plate.
The Swedish automaker has stripped out the front seat of their XC90 SUV and replaced it with what is essentially a pedestal on which to put the car seat. It swivels around to face the rear of the car, which is recommended for kids under 4.
“We started by asking ourselves if we could make life easier for parents and safer for their children when it comes to the child seat experience. We focused on three key benefits — making it easier to get the child into and out of the child seat from an ergonomic and comfort perspective, providing the child with a safe rearward-facing seating position that enables it to keep eye-contact with either the driver or the rear passenger and of course including enough storage for those vital child accessories, such as diapers, bottles, wipes, and so on,” says Tisha Johnson, Volvo’s Chief Designer of Interiors.
“Being able to maintain eye contact with your child from the rear seat… would go a long way toward making life easier for parents taking their small child on a trip,” Johnson continued. “Such alternative seating arrangements will become increasingly important as we move toward autonomous vehicles.”
The XC90 is basically a Mom version of the XC90 Lounge Console concept that was revealed last year, which removed the front passenger seat as well, and replaced it with a combination storage/ottoman/TV/ work table.
Volvo has been hard at work trying to ensure that drivers are safer and more secure when they hit the road in their Volvos. The carmaker is hoping to eliminate all crash-related fatalities in its cars by 2020. By 2017, Volvo hopes to unveil a program called “Drive Me,” which would put 100 real people in the Swedish company’s autonomous cars.
“It is relatively easy to build and demonstrate a self-driving concept vehicle, but if you want to create an impact in the real world, you have to design and produce a complete system that will be safe, robust, and affordable for ordinary customers,” says Erik Coelingh, a technical specialist at Volvo.
If you’re holding your breath for this interesting concept of a car to hit American shores in its current form, you might want to exhale. Most states require a child to sit in the rear seat, but if the Mommyfied version of the XC90 takes off, perhaps lawmakers will change their mind.