From cars to trucks: the consumer insight that guides our seating solutions

Understanding what’s important to people behind the steering wheel is important for the onboard experience, especially when you’re driving a 40-tonne truck for 8 hours a day. At Faurecia, we’re now applying our seating expertise from passenger cars to trucks. As for all our innovations, this is user-driven, including asking truck drivers about their onboard habits, priorities and desires.

Freight drivers can work upwards of 50 hours a week delivering vital goods and equipment. Whilst Faurecia has extensive know-how in safety, comfort, personalization and seating manufacturing platforms, the specific needs of truck drivers and fleet operators was an area where we looked for additional insight. In a first step, market research across 3 countries helped our teams prioritize where to focus, from frames, structures, postural support to the ergonomy of seating controls and ride performance.

A key working tool is our science-based comfort index that evaluates more than 50 comfort criteria organized into 10 categories. Typically, we use this in a four-step process with customers to define targeted comfort levels and optimize designs before the prototyping stage.

Our engineers set to work on a seat concept focused on improving safety, driving comfort and the working environment. To go a step further we invited 21 drivers and fleet managers to a series of workshops at Faurecia’s Seating Tech Center in Brières, France. Here, they were able to give opinions on their experiences of four different seating models. Participants were highly motivated to share their opinions, not least to improve the driving experience for the next generation of drivers.

FORVIA presents its new truck seat platform

The insights we gained helped to guide the first truck seat platform that FORVIA presented at IAA Transportation in 2022. Using a modular approach enables us to add comfort and wellness features – like massage, air conditioning and heat - or driver monitoring modules so seats are adapted to today’s needs as well as future scenarios (think partial or fully autonomous driving). Eco-design supports sustainability and the circular economy: seats are easier to assemble and disassemble for the replacement and recycling of components. For constructors, the modular architecture of the platform gives the flexibility to produce a wide variety of different seat models in a more cost-efficient way.

We’re looking forward to shaping the onboard truck experience and bringing, as part of FORVIA, a wealth of technologies for safe, sustainable and advanced mobility for the commercial vehicle sector.

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