Is the introduction of features to enhance your health and well-being just too much science fiction, asks John Reed
Toyota's RiN "healthy living" concept car took drew wide reviews - some of them derisive - when it premiered in Tokyo last month.
However, the company is known for spotting new trends, as with hybrid cars, and may be tapping a future market.
The car had everything from an oxygen-level conditioner to a steering wheel that changed colour based on the driver's mood.
Toyota drew design cues from the Yakusugi tree for the car, which it said aimed to evoke both "harmony with nature" and "a healthy mental and physical feeling".
Auto-show concept cars are often fanciful, and those that enter production rarely do so in unaltered form. But carmakers, already seeking to outclass competitors in such areas as quality, interior design, and environmental friendliness, are increasingly developing features that enhance drivers' health and well-being.
Carmakers are at various stages of discussing, developing, or rolling out health- and wellness-related features in their vehicles - from improved ergonomic seats and air filters to steering wheels that measure drivers' heart rates.
Frost & Sullivan, the automotive consultancy, found in a survey that 72 per cent of European consumers rated health, wellness and wellbeing in cars as important or very important. More than 40 per cent would pay more for features enhancing them.
"People are spending lots of time in their cars," says Sarwant Singh, practice director for Frost & Sullivan Europe. "They treat them as their second living rooms."
The findings are important for a bracingly competitive industry in which carmakers are lavishing ever more money and attention on interiors, whether in meticulously researched cupholders or wireless communication and entertainment systems.
BMW recently published a report showing that carbuyers set increasing value on their vehicles' interior design and ergonomic benefits.
More than half of dozens of drivers interviewed valued the car's refuge so much that they spoke of positively enjoying the commute to work.
"My car is like my bedroom - I feel comfortable and at ease in it," a 21-year-old male driver from Hull told the German carmaker.
The industry's most profitable Japanese and German producers - whose past innovations in safety and other features later became common, or even required by law - are, for now, leading the push for healthier drives.
Toyota's Lexus LS 600h L hybrid luxury saloon has a monitor that checks whether a driver is paying attention to the road. Nissan uses air filters impregnated with natural grape seed polyphenol, which help allergy-prone drivers by trapping dust and minuscule pollen particles.