Volvo’s Swivel Child Seat Concept Is About Luxury but Is It Safe?

When we were walking around Shanghai, checking out the fresh beauties in the biz (and some of the faux replicas for that matter) Volvo came up with this peculiar idea. The question was what if they removed the front passenger seat in their XC90 SUV to get more space and comfort? Called Excellence and the Lounge Console Concept, they recently upgraded the idea installing a swiveling child seat instead.
Volvo Cars’ design team has re-imagined how children could travel safely in cars in the future. Yes, the word “safety”, which clearly defines the Swedish automaker, is not missing the phrase. The move follows the Shanghai reveal of the XC90 Excellence and the Lounge Console Concept.

The car manufacturer trusts that luxury is not only about couples enjoying a high-end lifestyle, but it also should be revolving around the way families with small children travel. Here’s what Tisha Johnson, Chief Designer Interiors at Volvo Cars Concept and Monitoring Centre had to say about it:

“We focused on three key benefits - making it easier to get the child into and out of the child seat from an ergonomic and comfort perspective, providing the child with a safe rearward-facing seating position that enables it to keep eye-contact with either the driver or the rear passenger and of course including enough storage for those vital child accessories, such as diapers, bottles, wipes, and so on.”

As we mentioned, the concept child seat enables the parent to swivel it counter-clockwise seating the child and then lock it in a rearward facing position. Is that safe? Apparently, it’s not just safe, but safer. The idea is based on Volvo’s clear safety position, that states that small children should travel rearward facing as long as possible (at least up to the age of 3 or 4).

This is primarily due to the lack of muscular strength in the necks of small children and the disproportionate head size and weight with the body. In other words, having you kid travel that way is safer. Will we see this concept applied to Volvo’s future models? It is entirely possible.