Seating Supplier Adient Rolls Out Flurry of New Concepts

DETROIT – There is chatter that there weren’t many flashy new products revealed during media days at this year’s North American International Auto Show, but the critics clearly did not visit with suppliers at NAIAS. They had plenty of new ideas on display.

Adient (pronounced add-E-ent) showed off a variety of production-ready concepts, including an automated-driving seating system dubbed AI17; a concept that takes a whole new look at creating lighter, more comfortable seats; and seat designs from Recaro that represent a new business model for the performance brand.

Adient was created last year when industrial conglomerate Johnson Controls spun off its seat business. The new company claims to be the world’s largest seating supplier with 75,000 employees operating 230 manufacturing and assembly plants in 33 countries worldwide producing automotive seating for all vehicle classes and all major automakers. And it has been very busy coming up with ideas to showcase in the new year.

Adient collaborated with FCA to produce a vision of the future of seating for the automaker’s Chrysler Portal concept vehicle unveiled at CES in Las Vegas.

The Chrysler Portal is a forward-looking interpretation of family transportation targeted at the millennial generation. The concept features a thin seat that can fold flat and slide fore and aft on a track system for ultimate flexibility. The seats are mounted on tracks embedded in the floor, enabling the seats to move the full length of the vehicle. They also can be easily removed.

The supplier’s AI17 concept is a more advanced and luxurious take on autonomous driving. According to Richard Chung, vice president-Innovation, the AI17 showcases innovative solutions for Level-3 and Level-4 autonomous vehicles and illustrates how enjoyable future interiors will be.

“Based on extensive market and consumer research, the products in the demonstrator have been carefully designed with a modular approach to accommodate a wide range of vehicles and enable differentiation by segment,” Chung says.

The seating concept starts with a greeting or conversation mode that uses a base seat platform that swivels. In greeting mode, the base rotates up to 70 degrees outward so occupants can easily get in and out of the vehicle. The seats also rotate 15 degrees inward providing more intimate interaction during automated driving. Synchronized power movements optimize the position of each occupant for all modes.

The front seat is designed around an anthropometric (scientifically optimized for the size and proportions of the human body) pivot point that ensures the seat reclines with the occupant’s body and is supportive even as it reclines beyond the traditional range. The head restraint, armrests and leg rests are synchronized to move with the body and are designed to support a contemporary premium experience.

A cantilevered rear seat optimizes comfort for rear-seat passengers regardless of how they spend their ride time and reclines up to 45 degrees. An integrated leg rest stows underneath.

To carry larger cargo, rear-seat cushions and frames stow to a thin stadium position to create extra space. Integrated leg rests for the rear seats are made of spring steel and flex when pressure is applied from the passenger’s calf. The leg rests stow underneath the cushion to create a better packaging space.

A cushioned console extends into the rear passenger space, providing an armrest that supports the entire arm and offers space to store smaller items.

Dual-sided front-seat armrests provide support for resting, sleeping and socializing. And the armrests move with the body throughout the range of reclining and rotational seat positions.

Adient’s Vision Seat concept is designed around the idea of creating an automotive seat that is comfortable regardless of an occupant’s size and seating position. The design team worked without any of the assumptions typically used in traditional seat construction. Their starting point was considering the human side of design and studying and reacting to how people’s bodies move when they are sitting in a vehicle.

“The goal of the Vision Seat was to understand the marketplace and create an ever-evolving platform for seating-concept development,” says Nick Petouhoff, executive director-Engineering. “This design applies Adient’s knowledge of human anthropometry (the scientific study of measurements and proportions of the human body) to create the best possible human interface in a vehicle seat.”

The benefits of the new seat design include a thinner and lighter seat profile, greater comfort and easier seat adjustment, whether done manually or electrically. Adient says it will apply the principles it developed while designing the Vision Seat to future production seats.

Recaro Automotive Seating, a product group of Adient, also announced its expanded portfolio of performance seating at NAIAS, highlighting three new product concepts that will be specially developed for luxury cars and light trucks in addition to high-performance sports cars.  

Globally, Recaro supplies many different types of high-performance seats including those used in heavy duty long-haul trucks. In the U.S. it mainly is known as a maker of highly bolstered seats in limited-edition high-performance sports cars.

With the launch of Adient last fall, Ingo Fleischer, vice president-Global Specialty Seating, says he wants to use Adient’s broader positioning within the global automotive seating market to leverage the Recaro Automotive Seating performance culture and expand into other seating segments.

At NAIAS, Recaro introduced three new high-performance concepts, one aimed at sporty cars, another aimed at luxury cars and a third targeting pickup trucks and SUVs.

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