Could This Wellness Seat Relieve Reduce Stress?

The holidays are upon us.  Along with all of the joy this time of year brings comes some stress from the hustle and bustle of trying to get everything done.

Driver Stress During The Holidays

This is even more true in the transportation industry.  As Fleet Managers know, making sure everything gets from point A to point B on a regular schedule can be stressful anyway, but doing it all on a holiday schedule can be even more crazy.  And if it’s stressful for Fleet Owners and managers, you can bet that the drivers are feeling it too.  It’s not just the CDL drivers they’re managing either, it’s the four wheelers around them.  So what can be done to alleviate the stress of the season?

Active Wellness Seat

While it certainly isn’t the end all be all to driver stress, a new device, called “the active wellness seat” is sure top help ease the tension of drivers everywhere this holiday season.   This new “car seat” is manufactured by Faurecia and uses a biometric sensing system to monitor the physical and emotional state of a driver. Included in this monitor is the driver’s heart rate and respiration rate.  What’s cool about this new technology is that the seat can determine the best response to how the driver is feeling at the moment. 

How The Active Wellness Seat Works

If the active wellness seat determines that a driver is stressed out, it delivers a relaxing massage and a “warm sensation” that is designed for relaxation (only if the driver accepts via touch screen invitation).

If the seat collects data showing a lower heart rate or respiration and determines that the driver is getting tired, it has the ability to send a more energizing, vigorous message along with a blast of cool air to help keep the driver alert

Minimizing Emotional Driving
The goal of this seat is to minimize the impact of emotional driving. This includes, but is not limited to things as road rage, fatigued driving, etc.  While this seat looks to start out with “regular” drivers in mind, it will soon after be making its way into the seat of truckers everywhere no doubt.

What’s Next?

As we’ve written about recently on the Dickinson Fleet blog, the goal with most of these advances in technology is to better connect the vehicle with the driver and, in some cases, both the driver and the vehicle to the road.  As we head into 2016, this will continue to be the theme and we will continue to cover the latest news that impacts our valuable customers!

* Photo from Fauercia.com