Gadgetory

get in the backseat that used to mean something akin to here's an orange sink ticket to Guantanamo luckily in the last few years car makers have started to make the second row a lot less like going to prison I'm Brian Cooley with my top five rear seat innovations now my innovations I'm not talking about your awkward fumblings back on dates in high school rather the ways that car makers have taken tech to the second row and made it more than just a place to sit for a minute I'm gonna rank these by their everyday usefulness because we've seen just about all of them here at scenic number five a rear cooler sure you can use one of these to keep a can of Red Bull cold but don't these really say booze to you especially since they only really show up on kind of quasi limos now as you can't open the boozy contents of a cooler Legally anywhere in the US this would seem to be of low utility but they are a crowd pleaser number four climate control in the back seat and many cars have had a backseat sort of third zone some split that into two zones for quad zone but that's still mostly sharing the main HVAC system the newest wrinkle is a separate AC system just for the rear on some pretty high-end cars but I still rank this kind of low because it's kind of BS I mean the car remains a small undivided space eventually all the air goes to all the seats number three a Wi-Fi hotspot now most of our mobile devices today have their own connection to the Internet or can bum one off the other device but for a number of tablets and laptops this can be cool add in the fact that General Motors is about to make it common on most of its cars and power it with 4G and you may have just lost your last excuse to take a break from work number two rear seat entertainment now I'm no fan of those dopey dual DVD headrest rigs but let's face it they aren't there for elegant execution they're there for parental sanity so they do have their purpose but the most interesting systems today have really wide screens and let you plumb in your portable as a source instead of just relying on those antique optical discs now we're talking before I get to number one here's one great backseat innovation that touches all the rest and that is great rear seat control panels back in 2004 when they revised the Jag xji spotted the breakthrough here really sophisticated controls flash forward now to the latest Bentley Flying Spur for example with this cool detachable wireless controller that even connects to front-row tech one day the best tech in the car might be in the back the number one in cabin tech innovation you will use a lot is recline massage this is number one because back seats have always been purgatory with cramped room and no adjustments to make the most of what little you have adjustable rear seats used to be formerly the domain solely of super high dollar cars my box and stretch two LSE's but now you can fly a ride in comfort in a Hyundai Equus with the same technology now I've never understood massage seats personally but I seem to be the odd man out there so I'll give those a tip of my hat and now they can have shiatsu massage and all kinds of crazy stuff for more tech innovations like these go to see net on cars.com where it's all about high-tech cars and modern driving i'm brian Cooley thanks for watching