Nissan develops an autonomous chair for people who can’t stand queuing

Nissan today unveiled the latest in a series of innovations designed to bring the benefits of its Intelligent Mobility blueprint to the daily lives of customers. Following the success of the Intelligent Parking Chair earlier this year, the newly-developed ProPILOT Chair negotiates queues on behalf of its occupant, sparing them the hassle of standing in line.

Named after the company’s flagship autonomous driving technology, the ProPILOT Chair detects and automatically follows the chair ahead of it, maintaining a fixed distance and travelling along a set path. This closely resembles how the ProPILOT system for vehicles—available on the Serena minivan in Japan since August—maintains a safe distance behind the car ahead, and ensures that the vehicle stays in the center of its lane.

The ProPILOT Chair appeals to anyone who has queued for hours outside a crowded restaurant: it eliminates the tedium and physical strain of standing in line. The same user-friendly philosophy underpins Nissan’s ProPILOT autonomous driving technology, which was designed to ease driver workload by assisting with the most tiring and repetitive aspects of driving in heavy highway traffic. The unifying concept behind both is Intelligent Mobility, Nissan’s vision for how cars will be driven, powered, and integrated into society.

Nissan will also ensure that the ProPILOT Chair receives plenty of real-world testing. Between now and December 27, restaurants across Japan can apply to use the chairs by tweeting their name and webpage along with the hashtags #NissanProPilotChair #Wanted. For all other Twitter users, the recommended hashtag is #NissanProPilotChair.

The chairs will appear at selected restaurants in 2017. In the meantime, from September 29 through October 2, the public gallery at Nissan’s Global Headquarters in Yokohama will play home to an exhibit featuring six of the chairs. Visitors will be able to try the chairs and see them in action in a queue simulation.