With the long winter nights and darker mornings too, upon us, Skoda has come up with (yet) another of its 'Simply Clever' innovations aimed at making it easier to belt-up in your car in the dark.
Buckle release lit from within
Yes, it's the age of the illuminated seat-belt buckle, for which Skoda has been given a global patent. Basically, it replaces the simple red push-button that sits on top of the seat-belt anchor with a clear plastic item, which can be lit-up from within.
When you unlock and open the car, the buckle is lit up white, with a crystalline pattern on the clear plastic button that spreads the light to make the whole thing glow. When you sit into the seat, a weight pressure sensor recognises that you're there and changes the light to red. Once you've buckled up, the light changes to green and you're ready to go. Skoda says that this is an especially useful feature for parents, who will be able to see more easily if their kids have done up their belts properly, and it'll be easier to find belts for people when fumbling about in the dark.
'Simply Clever' laboratory
It's a product of Skoda's 'Simply Clever' laboratory, which labours away all year to try and come up with simple but useful little things such as this. Previous ideas to come out of the factory are an ice scraper built-in to the fuel filler flap, the little plastic tab on the windscreen that holds a parking ticket in place, and a rubberised slot to hold your smartphone neatly and securely.
In 2019, Skoda filed 94 individual patent applications - more than any other company in the Czech Republic. The number of patent applications has been on the increase for years, with many already integrated into the current range and many more set to appear in future models.
Easy-clean carpets
Those include carpet mats made of hollow fibre fabric, which are particularly easy to clean and on which dirt is hardly visible. Another patented Skoda invention is a flexible cargo snake that allows boxes, crates and other objects to be positioned more securely in the boot alongside luggage.
And it's not just features in the cars themselves that keep the design team busy. The brand has also successfully patented a production line camera system that can precisely align parts of the car body before welding. The system allows the car body to be optimally positioned right from the start, making the welding process faster and more accurate. Four cameras determine the position of the car body and allow the path of the welding robots to be quickly adjusted as they operate.