We hope we won't sound like perverts with a butt fetish when we say that our behinds tend to have very different sizes and shapes, and this poses a real difficulty for car manufacturers.
We also have different ways of using them, specifically when we get in and out of a car. Some people slide their seat all the way back for a more comfortable exit, others turn 90-degrees and place both feet on the pavement at once, while the normal folks place the left one first and, as they stand up, drag the other one out as well.
Since Ford is a serious company that cares about making good products, it didn't rely on our rudimentary description of how people use their seats and installed a pressure-sensitive mat inside a test vehicle and measured the data.
Armed with these findings, the carmaker built Robutt - a robotic butt whose only purpose on this planet is to sit in and out of a seat until somebody tells it otherwise. You might have seen something similar during your trip to IKEA where they have a glass display with a comfy chair and a pair of robotic buttocks that keeps pushing against it.
Ford's machine is a lot more complex than that, and it doesn't just test the overall sturdiness of the seat, but its ability to maintain its shape and comfiness through its entire life. Ford clearly takes seats seriously since the woman in the clip says they are one of the most tested components in the vehicle.
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And just in case you were wondering why isn't Ford using human subjects instead, wonder no more: the Robutt is able to simulate ten year's worth of use and abuse in just three very intense weeks. But we guess compared to the assembly line, this must feel like a vacation to the poor robot.
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