Modular Vehicle Seating Layout With Locking Fold-Store Seat Base
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional vehicle seating systems, even in electric vehicles, often retain bulky and impractical designs from internal combustion engine layouts, failing to leverage the unique features of electric vehicle platforms for improved comfort and safety, and lack modularity and adjustability.
Innovation Solution
The development of a modular vehicle seating system with configurable seating elements, including a primary and secondary seating arrangement, occupant position sensors, and a vehicle lockout system, which allows for adjustable positions, enhanced safety features, and space-saving designs that adapt to the electric vehicle platform, incorporating features like hinged and sliding mechanisms, and integrated safety sensors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If traditional internal combustion engine layouts are retained in electric vehicles, then structural familiarity and manufacturing simplicity are maintained, but space efficiency and comfort are reduced due to bulky designs
Solution Approach 1:
The seating system is divided into separate modular components including a base support structure, primary seating element, seat back element, and secondary seating element. Each component can be independently positioned and configured, allowing the system to adapt to different spatial requirements while maintaining a compact overall footprint suitable for electric vehicle platforms.
Solution Approach 2:
The seating system incorporates movable and adjustable elements including the seat back element that can pivot between positions and the secondary seating element that can be positioned in different configurations. This dynamic capability allows the same seating system to provide both compact storage and expanded comfort configurations, resolving the contradiction between volume efficiency and adaptability.
2Ease of operation
If fixed seating positions are used, then structural simplicity is maintained, but comfort and safety are reduced due to lack of adjustability
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the seating system into distinct adjustable components (base support structure, primary seating element, seat back element, secondary seating element), the patent enables independent adjustment of each part without requiring complex integrated mechanisms. This modular approach improves ease of operation while controlling overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The base support structure serves multiple functions by supporting both the primary seating element and the secondary seating element, which can be positioned in different configurations. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate structural components for each seating position, thereby improving adjustability without proportionally increasing system complexity.
3Quantity of substance
If secondary seating elements are added for increased capacity, then passenger capacity is improved, but space efficiency is reduced when not in use
Solution Approach 1:
The secondary seating element is designed to be movable and reconfigurable, allowing it to be positioned in a stored configuration that minimizes volume when not in use, and deployed to a seating configuration that increases passenger capacity when needed. This dynamic reconfiguration resolves the contradiction between capacity and volume efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The secondary seating element can be positioned to nest alongside or adjacent to the primary seating element in a space-efficient manner. When not in use, the secondary element can be folded or repositioned to occupy minimal space within the vehicle interior, effectively nesting the additional seating capacity within the overall seating system volume.
Data Source
AI summary
A side facing seat includes a seat back element and a moveable seat base element disposed below the seat back element. The moveable seat base element is moveable at least between a stored position and a seating position. Movement of the moveable seat base element is controlled by an activation element that is configured to engage with a locking mechanism such that the locking mechanism is able to lock the moveable seat base element in the stored position or the seating position.