Toyota's Latest Patent Could Bring An End To The Infamous Pit Of Doom

Rejoice! There’s now hope that the infamous pit of doom could be made a thing of the past… if you buy a future Toyota, anyway.

That infernal gap between the side of your seat and the centre console, where all the universe’s secrets are hidden and from which you can abandon hope of ever recovering anything you drop down it, has long been a thorn in the side of the humble motorist. The days of swearing violently when the only coins you have on you fall into the pit of doom just as you reach the toll booth could be coming to an end, though, thanks to a new patent from Toyota.

Toyota in the US has filed a patent for a simple funnel that channels dropped objects onto a tray, which could then move forwards or back automatically via motors and actuators, so that you can easily retrieve things without having to furiously dismantle the seat first. It’s like a little helping hand returning your lost goods to you with no fuss.

The ‘under-seat capture device’, which in no way sounds totally creepy, is such a laughably simple idea that it must be some kind of miracle of stupidity that no one has done it before now. Surely anyone who drives cars regularly has dropped keys, coins, phones or something else important into the pit of doom, so surely car designers and engineers must have had the idea to do something like this years ago.

There is, of course, no guarantee that the device will make production, but we’re just hoping that one of the firm’s chief engineers dropped his lucky Yen into the pit and never saw it again, and that we can expect the funnel/tray deal to make it to reality. That, friends, will be a glorious day.

Via: Motor1