My wife sent me a great article today that reminded me of something I wrote a number of months ago. (see below link) Regardless, I agree with this article greatly: http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/12/11147183-forget-parent-error-car-designs-make-seats-hard-to-install?lite
Please send that article to your car industry friends, should you have some.
You can find the orig post here http://chadlockartignire.typepad.com/chad-lockart-ignire/2011/07/big-cars-small-people-stack-up.html.
and here:
Stick with me. This will be down and dirty cause I don't have much time. Was out shopping with the family. Coming back we were following a gem of a Subaru Forester. The new Forester...took me a bit to dig on the new body style but now I really want one. Alas, reality says no way, not right now. We'll keep the two Subaru's we have now! This led to discussion about some friends who just got a Tribeca. I say to my wife, "those are big right?" She says, "yeah, but they have two kids (still in car seats..big kid seats)." I say, "I am not judging just asking if the vehicle is big?" She says, "yes, it's big, big enough for a growing family...she (the wife) loves it."
This got me thinking about the SUV haters. There are people who dislike SUV people for "wasting resources" or "wrecking the environment" or "taking too much space on highways" somehow. The arguement goes like this, people don't need such huge vehicles...esp in cities...they could drive a smaller more efficient car, etc, etc. Now that I have kids I totally understand why people buy SUV's (and use drive-thru's). More space, easier kid handling, perception of safety and versatility. But more important, SPACE and Efficiency!
So what's the issue? Our Outback is a big enough wagon. It felt huge when we bought it. Now that we have kids it doesn't feel so big. Why? ...and what does that have to do with an innovation opportunity? Well, anyone with kids knows about the car seat stack up. We currently have two styles, an infant rear facing seat and a forward facing toddler seat. Both have different issues and both when stacked and buckled on the rear seats take up a ton of space. The issue is not the size of the car seat but the stack up of the rear adult seats and child seats that the child seat buckles atop. By the time the seat is in and the kid is in you can't put the front seats all the way back without running into the rear facing seat, pushing it out of level, or running into the toddlers feet which either pinches them, cramps them or makes the back of your front seat filthy from the always grimey toddler shoes. Never mind the cramped space makes it difficult and time consuming to get kids in and out. Given all this stack up a large SUV or Van starts to make more and more sense. Plus those vehicles have a lot of storage for all the stuff that comes with parenting.
The solution? Cars for parents with removeable rear seats and specific kid-size only seats or latches designed for child seats...but no adult seat. Get rid of the adult rear seat and you get rid of the stack up and you end up with a ton of space. This would increase ingress/egress ease and speed. The toddler seat would be low enough for safe "climb-in" and accessible enough to make the process efficient. It would create more feet space in front and rear. It would mean a person like me could keep the "small" wagon and have a wife that doesn't bug me for a larger, easier to use vehicle. And a sale pitch request to my car design friends and alumni: this will increase your design opportunity by turning the "aftermarket" car seat industry into a new profit center for auto makers. It means your industry picks up child seat sales. It means you have an opportunity to increase safety by creating something AWESOME for real parents willing to spend cash on the right solution.
Comments