Seating Comfort

Seating comfort is extraordinarily difficult to define.   However, we ask the subject sitting in the seat to rate comfort on a scale from 1 to 10. What does the answer represent? ERL, LLC has developed a mathematical algorithm that calculates a comfort score. The correlation between the ERL comfort score and subjective ride scores is very high (0.8). With the development of this algorithm to calculate seat comfort for the driver or passenger, ERL has created a tool that shortens the development cycle and reduces the need for seat development rides. The ride becomes a confirmation that the seat is comfortable for all drivers.

A picture is worth a 1,000 rides!

[ From ERL Validation Study (2006) ]

Actual Small Female Driver says:
"cushion: a little long   ...
  head rest: a little hard to move, orientation bad   ...
  too close to steering wheel   ...
  back rest lateral too low and are pushing my arms   ... "
Driver's Score: 7.0 out of 10.0

ERL Small Female Model reports:
Cushion too long
Cushion too wide
Too much support at nose
Lower Backrest too narrow
Upper backrest too wide
ERL Score: 7.58 out of 10.0