Honda Grocery Assist: Glide Mat
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Date
2024-05
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
Vehicles are an important part of most people’s lives in America. We use them to travel, explore, and transport items all the time. But sometimes objects are difficult to unpack. Everyday items like packs of cases of water, boxes, or even a new TV. People can overexert themselves and strain their muscles if not using proper techniques when lifting or grabbing items.
The Glide Mat is a product designed to keep that in mind. This design was created in partnership with Honda to design a new product for their vehicles, with the idea of assisting users with grocery shopping. This design is currently conceptualized in their 2023 Passport and Acura TLX Models. The Glide Mat is one part of the Honda Grocery Assist, which includes 3 other designs also meant to assist users in other parts of the shopping experience. This design focuses on the loading and unloading process. The design is a trunk liner that has over 300 rollers in place to help glide heavier items around the trunk to assist in unloading. From my initial research and user testing participants noted that heavy items were difficult to load and unload from their vehicles, often noting back or arm strain because of pushing and pulling. The purpose of this product is to reduce the amount of back and arm strain one might have pulling items from the car. Allowing them to safely bring it to a place where they can ground themselves to unload without exhaustion by just trying to unload.
The Glide Mat's roller mechanism is activated with a switch on the left front side. Once activated, it will alleviate some of the strain of pushing and pulling items by allowing one to easily move items across the trunk's floor, and place them in a position close to their body in order to ground themselves for easier lifting. To stop items from moving while in transit simply flip the switch off to stop the rollers from moving. This design is multifunctional, being able to be used for not only groceries, but also other heavy items such as when traveling, moving materials for home improvement, tailgating, or even camping.
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Keywords
Design, Strain, Trunk liner, Grocery shopping, Vehicle Assessories, User experience