“Making things better for you” is the theme of Johnson Controls’ 2007 show display, where the automotive component supplier focuses on features that create more space inside cars, provide less waste in making them, and promote better integration with mobile technology.

Centerpiece of the company’s display is a Saturn Outlook with an interior largely built by Johnson—all three rows of seats, the roof panels and their integrated systems, center console, instrument panel and electronics. Some of these features, including the fold-flat "smart slide seats" with their easy one-handed operation, were first announced in concept form at past years' auto shows. Especially notable is the third-row seating which folds completely flat despite its full-size side bolsters, and is claimed to offer similar comfort and safety to the front seats.

The Outlook illustrates the major but often unnoticed influence that companies such as Johnson Controls have on the global industry due to their worldwide design and manufacturing operations.

Future Products

Ultra-thin car seats are at the heart of every car designer’s vision of perfection. Take a look at your own car's seats and you might be surprised at just how bulky they are. Making them thinner would free up much-needed interior space, but it’s hard to make thin seats tough enough or safe enough to stay the course.

The “Slim Seat” concept Johnson Controls showed here could be a step in the right direction. It has a conventional base, but an impressively slim seatback cleverly constructed using tubular steel plus standard fabric and cushioning materials. The use of materials already available means slim seats could be in 2010 model-year vehicles.

The “Clear Solution Overhead System” reduces waste and cost in building headliners. Conventionally, fitting glass roof panels meant building the standard roof panel and then cutting a big hole in it. Up to 40 percent of the material might be cut out and go to waste. The Clear Solution involves manufacturing the headliner in sections, reducing waste and allowing easier integration of additional features such as ambient backlighting and display screens.

The "Mobile Device Gateway" recognizes that, in the words of Johnson Controls Vice President Beda Bolzenius, “the clock speed of consumer electronics [runs much faster than] a vehicle lifespan.” In other words, you buy a new iPod more often than you buy a new car, and building MP3 players into cars is a sure-fire route to rapid obsolescence. The Mobile Device Gateway lets you integrate your latest MP3 player, cell phone, or other mobile device into your car’s electronics using Bluetooth, USB or a serial port. Onboard software lets you access the device’s functions and files from your car’s dashboard.

Rather less glamorous is the “Access Floor Console,” a design concept that uses existing manufacturing technology to improve the front-seat armrest and center console module, creating an extra large storage space and high-quality finish, answering growing consumer protests at uselessly tiny cubby holes.