In the escalating arms race for consumer attention in China’s crowded electric vehicle market, the latest salvo has arrived in rather unexpected form: a voice-activated lavatory that tucks neatly beneath the passenger seat.
Seres, the Chongqing-based manufacturer behind the Aito brand, has secured a patent from China’s intellectual property administration for what its engineers describe, with commendable plainness, as an “in-vehicle toilet”. According to the filing lodged on 10 April and reviewed by Business Matters, the contraption is designed to “satisfy users’ toilet needs on long journeys, while camping or while staying in the car”.
Whether any such vehicle will ever roll off a production line remains an open question. Seres has made no product announcement, and the patent may yet prove to be little more than a defensive flourish or a marketing exercise. But the filing is emblematic of the extraordinary lengths to which Chinese EV manufacturers are now going to differentiate themselves in what has become perhaps the most fiercely contested automotive market in the world.
The technical detail is, if nothing else, thorough. The unit slides out from beneath the passenger seat on a rail, activated either by a gentle push or a spoken command. A built-in fan and exhaust pipe channel odours out of the cabin, while a rotating heating element evaporates urine and desiccates solid waste, which is then collected in a manually emptied tank. When not required, the unit is concealed below the seat, preserving interior space, a characteristically pragmatic solution to a decidedly unglamorous problem.
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