A Step Towards Equality for People with Disabilities

STENKULLEN, SWEDEN -- November 23, 2015: Limited mobility used to mean a limited choice of cars. The available models were mostly large vehicles such as light commercial vehicles or minivans. With Autoadapt's latest swivel seat, the Turny Low Vehicle, more people get to choose the car they love, not just a car based on their physical needs.

The Turny Low Vehicle lets its user sit up front and be an active part of the ride, even drive. From a safety perspective the user is also seated as the car designer intended, in a car seat. To facilitate transfers to and from a wheelchair, the Turny Low Vehicle can extend the seat cushion 40 centimetres outside the vehicle.

Hasse Slungare, Autoadapt product designer exemplifies: "In very aerodynamic low built cars, getting a seat to swivel out is not really the issue. On the other hand having someone over the age of 9 months in that seat used to be somewhat of a challenge. Today we're able to swivel a very tall person with stiff knees and size 15 shoes inside that very same vehicle. The way the Turny Low Vehicle moves makes the dashboard to knee space a non-issue. In short we've made vehicles previously impossible to adapt a viable choice for more people."

While swivel seats have been around for a long time they have become increasingly hard to fit in modern vehicles. Low roofs and slanted B-pillars have made some sedan type cars nearly impossible to adapt with a swivel seat. The key issue used to be space, specifically the space between the dashboard and the knees.