Volvo designs new inflatable car seat for children

Car seats are not the most graceful of objects, but they are necessary. Wouldn’t it be nice if car seats could smoosh down to fit into a backpack? If Volvo ever produces its inflatable child car seat concept, that could very well be the case. Volvo filed for a patent for a rearward-facing inflatable child seat in 2012. The patent shares Volvo’s reasoning behind the idea: “A child seat should be easy to install and remove and have a weight as low as possible, since the adjustment and movement of heavy objects in general in a passenger car is extremely awkward.” A video presentation on the concept just recently emerged to give us a better idea of how it might work. It shows a button at the base of the seat that, when pressed, causes the whole thing to collapse down into a packable form in just 40 seconds. Inflating it back up into full form would take the same amount of time.