Many of us have just experienced the Hari Raya Aidilfitri exodus to their beloved ‘kampung’ and returned to their normal lives. Some of us were unfortunate enough to get stuck long hours and traffic and sitting through all that time made the trip very, very uncomfortable.
Many car companies have gone through great lengths in figuring out what are the best designs to cure this ‘pain in the ass’ issue and Ford might have just ‘cracked’ the code. Ford’s global seating and comfort team have joined forces with Supervisor Mike Kolich who is also known as Ford’s “Dr. Derriere” to fix that very problem.
According to Dr Kolich, a PhD holder in industry and manufacturing systems engineering, “Road trips can be largely defined by how comfortable people are – and when you get down to it, how comfortable our seats allow them to be. As engineers, we’re thrilled with this new seat, but really it’s what our customers say and think that matters.”
A sleek and stylish new front seat offering in the all-new 2020 Ford Explorer maintains the stringent Ford standard for shape and softness and does so with a less cumbersome design that frees up space for second-row passengers.
Two main factors come into play for the next-generation Ford comfort DNA; shape and softness. Dr Kolich and his team have successfully maintained the comfort standard in the new front-row seat debuting on the all-new Explorer while eliminating some of the bulk by reducing the thickness of the seat back and shoulder area.
This new design will hopefully help to enhance driving comfort by over 50% thanks to a new V-shaped seat design that provides torso support for a wider range of body types and sizes. This is very important for those who frequent a lot in long-distance driving (or being stuck in endless rush hours to and from work).
The first-for-Ford design is the seating team’s latest innovation. For the all-new Explorer, the team started with its award-winning seat architecture that represents the nexus of all Ford seats regardless of vehicle type or size.
The new comfort seats also come with a ventilation feature that draws warm air from the body rather than pushing cold air through seat perforations, equipped with a multi-contour system with unique massage patterns. New front-row back panels allow for a more sculpted appearance and improved second-row knee room.
The award-winning design is currently only available in the 2020 Ford Explorer for the US market, but we can foresee that the technology being trickled down to other Ford models across the globe, particularly the Ford Ranger series available here in Malaysia.
