Apart from making vehicles, Skoda is also renowned for its ‘Simply Clever’ innovations that ultimately trickle down to passenger vehicles. Now the brand has now filed a patent for an innovative way to keep the driver and passengers especially children buckled to their seats with an illuminated seatbelt buckle. While this might just sound gimmicky at first, but it really is a useful feature especially at night and in a car that the passengers are not familiar with.
In terms of its mechanics, the seatbelt buckle remains largely unchanged but the ejector button on the Skoda’s illuminated seatbelt features a transparent button instead of the conventional red button which is incorporated with multiple LED lights. Each LED light denotes a different mode of operation. For example, when the seat is vacant the buckle illuminates a White light and when it detects a passenger in the seat the light turns Red and turns Green when the passenger buckles up.
The illuminated feature is especially useful when there are children seated in the car. The system helps parents ensure the little ones are always buckled letting them know if they have forgotten to fasten the seatbelt or the belt buckle has not engaged correctly. The system is also expected to be programmed to display a welcome sequence during ingress and egress making them more visible in dark environments.
Skoda has been making innovations making the life easy, one such innovation that the brand developed in the recent past is the new ‘Sound Analyser’ app. The technology is currently under trial at the After-Sales department of Skoda Auto and Skoda Auto Digilab across 245 Skoda Dealerships in 14 countries. The new App-based analyser integrates Artificial Intelligence technology to precisely, reliably and promptly assess the condition of wearing parts and notify technicians of any required servicing.
The sound analyser system works by passing the recorded sounds through a set algorithm and then compares it with a database of sound patterns, producing the results. The software is already able to recognise ten patterns and is reported to have an accuracy of around 90%. The new Sound Analyser system enables the technicians to perform accurate diagnostics on a vehicle with ease using only a standard smartphone or tablet to use the app.
