#inventions

With automakers perpetually promoting daft new technologies as a way to appease investors, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a new idea that made us take pause and wonder why nobody else had come up with it first. Fortunately, Jaguar Land Rover has done us a solid, with research help from Glasgow University, and delivered a “sensory steering wheel” aimed at giving drivers silent feedback through temperature variances.

The applications of the device are yet to be settled upon but JLR has suggested that the wheel could be used to notify the driver of less-pressing issues that don’t warrant an audible announcement or even offer silent turn-by-turn navigation.

Sometimes car companies have radical ideas that don’t really pan out when it comes time to persuade consumers to part with their money. Today’s Studebaker Wagonaire is such a vehicle. It falls into the unique convertible-wagon-truck grouping, in which the only other member is a GMC Envoy from 40 years later.

Citroën has developed a device, meant to be worn on the face, that resemble eyeglasses and can eliminate the symptoms associated with motion sickness within minutes of putting them on. Or so it claims.

Obviously, such an invention would be a blessing for travelers afflicted with a sensitive stomach, but we’ve noticed they’re not the most stylish set of frames on the market. On the spectrum of taste, we’d place them right between the novelty glasses people wear during New Year’s Eve — denoting the coming annum — and the false spectacles you drew on your passed-out roommate’s face in college.

However, if you view Citroën motion sickness glasses as a medical device, they become easier on the eyes. Tragically named Seetroën, the frames are said to use “Boarding Ring™ technology” and boast 95 percent effectiveness. All you have to do is wait until you feel sick and chuck these bad boys onto your face. After about ten minutes, the glasses “enable the mind to resynchronize with the movement perceived by the inner ear while the eyes were focused on an immobile object.”