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Designing and building an “aging suit”, instead of just inviting grandma over to play, is perhaps the single most japanese thing I have ever witnessed.
Doubtless Honda has a full-on granny robot working away in some dark lab; a mere suit is good enough for Nisaan because they are French.
I like the big buttons that light up when you press them, and the clear displays are welcome. The girl at 2:30 was cute. But then I totally didn’t get the part about “the aging suit”.
I found this refreshing, a view through a very similar yet unique culture.
I loved my Nissan 240SX, and my G35, and I’m looking at the Z but I have to give Ford credit for having this five years ago (they called it the “third age suit”):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3538220.stm
I don’t know why Ford didn’t just hire old people to try out its cars, but Nissan has a good reason for using the aging suit, old people in Japan steal stuff:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4751
ZoomZoom :
“…But then I totally didn’t get the part about “the aging suit”.”
The aging suit is an attempt to give a younger person an idea of how aging effects your senses. The suit limits movement, restricts vision and slows reaction times to those approximate of an older individual. The main idea behind it is that you can better design for someone’s needs when you experience them yourself… the old “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” cliche.
I think it was Nissan where the engineers glued on false fingernails so they could test how easy it was for women to work the controls.
Attention to detail makes the difference when all cars are much the same.
The population is Japan is aging…. AND young people aren’t buying as many cars. You can find both these facts on the net.
It’s smart product development to design cars for your largest market segment.
And as for Robots – ever ask yourself why Japan is working so hard on robots?
The answer is because Honda intends to sell you a robot to be you in-home care giver. That’s the next big appliance market. Within 20 years they’ll be common.
I’m just back from 3 weeks in Japan. All these points are common knowledge there. The robots will sell big in Japan because they don’t have a lot of young people to act as nurses/caretakers for the old, and Japan isn’t about to allow a lot of foreigners to immigrate to take those jobs.
Hopefully Nissan can come up with cars for old people and Honda can come up with robots for old people quicker than Toyota can figure out a way to use old people as a source of energy, otherwise it’s going to be Soylent Green Demographics Synergy Drive.
Now when are they going to stop making there cars so ugly?
Doesn’t Toyota already have the old folk’s car market cornered?
Nissan is preparing for the demographic future in which folks over 55 will be a much bigger fraction of the market.
GM is bringing out a retro Camaro. Try that in an “aging suit.”
Wouldn’t it just be easier to buy Buick from GM?
There was some good ideas in there but didn’t that car door sound really tinny?
I’d like them to try to get an old japanese granny into that thing. She still wouldn’t be able to see above the steering wheel. No suit is going to help you with that.
Hmmm. My retired parents are visiting me this week, and they have a rental Nissan Versa.
I’ll have to see how the Versa’s ergonomics in this regard stack up to my those of my Suzuki SX4.
no_slushbox: “Hopefully Nissan can come up with cars for old people and Honda can come up with robots for old people quicker than Toyota can figure out a way to use old people as a source of energy, otherwise it’s going to be Soylent Green Demographics Synergy Drive.”
Which will be rated in MPG (miles per grandparent).
50merc: “GM is bringing out a retro Camaro. Try that in an “aging suit.”
My great fear is that I’ll visit a showroom to sit in a new Camaro, and my hernia-repaired bad backed bad kneed gouty ass will need help getting out.
My Elantra is a boring car, but it’s easy to get in and out of.
I liked the buttons that had the afterglow when you pushed them – a memory aid of subtle elegance.
will the turn signals prompt grandma to turn them off after 5 minutes?
will the turn signals prompt grandma to turn them off after 5 minutes?
yes, and a special road captain mode to make sure nobody behind goes too fast.
Maybe it’s also time to consider the effect of gloves and mitts on being able to use dashboard controls. In large parts of North America including pretty well all of Canada we have a season called winter. Sure we have good heaters now but I’ll bet that most people don’t take off their winter gloves until the car is warm and in the meantime it’s almost impossible to operate some of the tiny pushbuttons that festoon our dashboards and consoles. It’s about time the carmakers looked at function and made cars that are functional. I think it’s important to consider the aging demographic of much of the world because that’s who’s going to be buying the cars. For example, I don’t know how normal humans can even get into a Lexus GS; I can’t. My neck doesn’t bend like that. As for rear seats, aside from a couple of Kias, Hyundais and the Toyota Avalon, is there an affordable car that has a rear seat with legroom? I say, let’s make cars that fit humans instead of making humans contort themselves into cars. And that goes for visibility too.