Butts are amazing things. You can sit on them, obviously, but we’ve also made them fly, we’ve used artificial ones to test out smartphones, and we’ve even seen car companies test out car seats using robotic butts. Now they can do at least one more thing (that we’re allowed to write about) — they can start cars. In a manner of speaking.
Get on your butt and do something
You might be familiar with the Polestar 1, the electric vehicle spun off from Volvo’s productions lines. It’s one heck of a vehicle, even though we’ve yet to see it on these shores, but its replacement will prove to be even better. And that’s because it doesn’t need keys in order to start.
Which isn’t a big deal, in itself. Loads of cars do that. There’s no start button either, though, and most cars at least have one of those. No, the Polestar 2 starts up as its owner is approaching (it’s an electric vehicle, so you won’t even notice this) and, once the driver’s weight hits the sensors in the seat, the vehicle is ready to go. Basically, your butt-cheeks are the startup mechanism.
You can actually see the feature demonstrated in a webinar released by Polestar this week, showing just how the keyless start works. The webinar is focused on safety but the company’s Beatrice Simonsson also demos Polestar 2’s startup sequence. You can catch the explanation, as well as the safety procedures behind the startup, at the 15:00 mark in the video above.
That’s not all that’s cool about the Polestar 2. but it’s the only item involving buttocks. Until they find a way to control 360-degree cameras, distance-controlled cruise control, and cross-traffic alerts with your behind, we’ve just had to use them the way Polestar has designed them. Which is good enough for us — not everything needs to be controlled by an ass.