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Self-Driving Cars to Get High-Tech Interior Upgrade

From sensors to new materials, automotive supply company, Faurecia, anticipates the future of autonomous vehicles.

(TNS) -- Faurecia, a French automotive supplier with offices in Auburn Hills, offered a glimpse of what may be the future of car interiors: Sensors that track biofeedback; glass, wood and even stone and touch displays, and seats that give you the feeling you are relaxing in your living room.

"We're looking at how we want to transform the vehicle," Tony Sapienza, Faurecia's director of communications, said Wednesday at a hands-on exhibit the company had set up the Crowne Plaza Pontchartrain hotel, across from the Detroit auto show. "We're working on the cockpit of the future today."

Faurecia (pronounced like four-see-ah) is anticipating that the next generations of vehicles will be autonomous, freeing drivers to focus on more than the road.

As a result, the company is designing and engineering automotive seats and interiors that are more comfortable, safer and smarter.

It also expects that as cars and the technology in them evolve, automobiles will become more connected to people's homes and mobile devices.

In one demonstration, which the company calls Active Wellness 2.0, eight sensors -- in the dashboard and seats -- gather about a dozen data points including heartbeat, breathing, sweat, facial expression, blinking, and whether your eyes are open. The aim is to help you feel more comfortable.

If the system senses perspiration, it might lower the temperature. If the data indicates you are uncomfortable, it might adjust the seat position or the lighting. If your eyes are closed, it might conclude you are sleepy and send you warnings -- or take over the driving.

The system also could factor in other data, such as weather, time of day and driving conditions to enhance comfort and safety.

Eventually, company officials said, all this data could be tied to an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle.

In addition, the system could interact with mobile apps and be useful as the auto industry develops more connectivity.

It could help enhance safety for young and inexperience drivers -- or aging drivers with dementia.

But, the company acknowledged, this technology also raises many new questions about data security and privacy for the industry and government to wrestle with.

A system like this could start appearing in more luxury cars within five to seven years, the company said.

The company also showed off new dashboard designs using new materials.

The redesign makes the dashboards lighter, and they look -- and function -- more like smartphones and tablets. Glass interfaces have haptic feedback.

The company also is tinkering with surfaces with wood and stone veneer that also work as control panels.

In many ways, Sapienza said, as cars do more of the driving, the interior designs will change, giving way to seats that swivel or lie back. Drivers can spend less time watching roadways and more time talking to passengers or paying attention to other things.

"We think," Sapienza said, "this is a revolution in how you use the vehicle."

©2017 the Detroit Free Press Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.