Faurecia Predicts What Interiors of Autonomous Vehicles Could Look Like

Faurecia SA is giving serious thought to the design of the interiors of autonomous vehicles. The company, which is partly owned by Peugeot & Citroen, is one of the biggest suppliers of automotive seats and interiors. While there is plenty of talk about the advent of driverless cars and their legal and social ramifications, few people have wondered about the interiors. Faurecia, though is in the interiors business and has plenty of time considering this aspect.

According to Matt Benson, head of ventures and advanced innovation for the company, the emphasis was now on coming up with interiors for a vehicle where the focus had turned from turning to more flexibility in the cockpit, to help make it more intuitive and predictive. He said that, freed from the task of driving, many motorists are looking to forward to using their time in the car for activities like exercise, playing the guitar and even knitting. This is definitely an indicator that the behavior of the drivers and the passengers are set to change in the future and the car interiors need to be adapted accordingly.

When it came to the seats, the emphasis was on “active wellness” and incorporating predictive analytics and biometric sensors to keep track of the stress, drowsiness and other wellness related parameters of the occupant, according to Rob Huber, VP of innovations and ventures. In the event that the sensors revels any degree of stress, the seat will respond accordingly.

In the event an occupant shows any symptoms of stress, the seat itself will respond accordingly. The company is also trying to incorporate gesture controls and voice recognition features in the audio, lighting and control systems. Another aspect that will receive more attention is the “cleanability” factor as with the advent of driverless cars and on-demand sharing fleets, vehicles are likely to be used to a greater level.

Faurecia failed to reveal specific details of the company’s experiments and studies but is definitely up to speed with the developments that are taking place with regard to driverless cars.