Cars aren’t
just for driving any more. We eat, drink, jabber and entertain ourselves in our
autos — just like at home — and often create the same kind of mess found on the
couch after munching chips and playing Xbox.
Honda has
come up with the next ingenious gizmo that allows your car to mimic your living
room: a built-in vacuum that runs off the car’s electrical system and
eliminates the need to drive to the car wash for a vacuum, or run an extension
cord from the house. The HondaVac, which debuts this year as an option on the new Odyssey
minivan, was the brainchild of a 10-year-old girl who noticed the detritus
in the family minivan one day and said, “You know what we need in here, Dad? A
vacuum cleaner.” Her Dad happened to be a Honda engineer, who took the
"no-duh" idea to work, allowing Honda to roll out the most
clever-but-obvious automotive innovation since the cupholder.
I recently
spent a week test-driving the HondaVac (along with the Odyssey it was installed
in), and one of the first joyful surprises was the enthusiasm my teenage kids
showed for the vac. Credit the gizmo factor: If it has buttons and makes noise,
kids are interested. But the enthusiasm quickly died as we realized the vac
wouldn’t work while we were moving, which meant my kids had to find something
else to keep them busy during a boring road trip. And once we got home, they
ran off, for some reason, before I could put them to work sucking up dirt.
Honda
deliberately designed the vac so it works only when the transmission is in
park. It’s not against the law to vacuum while driving (yet), but the automaker
figured drivers don’t need yet another distraction when they’re supposed to
have their eyes on the road. It would also prefer that passengers in the rear
seats stay buckled in rather than unbuckling their belts to reach in the back
and haul out the vacuum. “There’s no benefit to vacuuming while you’re
driving,” says Kerry McClure, Honda’s chief engineer for the 2014 Odyssey.
“It’s just not something we want to promote.”
A golden era
It’s kind
of a golden era for vehicle designers these days, as there’s so much new
technology available to install in cars, turning them into mobile multimedia
hotspots. Automakers such as Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lexus and Mercedes now offer
a cellular connection straight to the car itself (no
phone required), which basically brings the entire Internet to the dashboard.
Other new systems mirror the user’s smartphone on an in-dash
touchscreen, allowing access to all the apps you carry in your pocket. And
automakers seem certain to copy the HondaVac, while exploring what other types
of household appliances might be useful in cars. Coffeemaker? Hair dryer?
Printer? (Tip: Don't be fooled if you come across news of the "HondaHair"
in-car grooming kit, published last April 1.)
All that
gizmology is creating a safety problem, however. Distracted driving causes
about 3,300 vehicle deaths per year and 421,000 injuries,
according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Teenage
drivers, not surprisingly, are most at risk of crashing while distracted. While
both the total number and the rate of U.S. traffic fatalities have been falling
during the past several years, accidents involving distraction appear to be on
the rise.
Mobile
phones are one obvious reason. At any given moment, 660,000 drivers are talking on the phone, texting or using some kind of
electronic gadget, according to NHTSA. But new technology is hardly the only
thing that takes drivers’ attention off the road. A study from earlier this year by Erie Insurance found
that being “lost in thought” — otherwise known as daydreaming — accounted
for 62% of fatal crashes linked to distraction. Cell-phone use — including both
talking and texting — accounted for just 12%. Other causes of fatal distraction
include rubbernecking, fiddling with radio dials or other controls, eating and
drinking, reaching for something in the car, interacting with passengers,
reacting to a pet or a bug in the cabin, and smoking.
Honda is
determined to keep vacuuming off that list, so I can only report on my
impressions of the HondaVac while parked in the driveway. The vacuum works with
the engine off or on, though suction is stronger when the van is running. It
comes with a crevice tool and a wider carpet attachment that stow out of sight
when not being used. The vacuum hose reaches every spot in the interior and is
probably long enough to vacuum another car in the driveway. When the canister
gets full, you just snap it out, dump it, and slide it back in.
You may not be able to persuade your kids to do the job for you, but the
HondaVac will make cleaning the family hauler a little easier, anyway.
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