“We were astounded at the bumps that the standard under-the-seat suspension could not absorb,” recalled Bose chief engineer Mike Rosen. “We came away thinking there has to be a better way and we could use our technology to help.”
In the conventional setup, when a force pushes on a spring, it pushes back. The Bose Ride actuator intercepts and counteracts the waves or vibrations from the road into the rig. The driver is nearly in constant motion as the spring cushions the forces but never counters them.
“When a truck hits a pothole, it’s sensed by the Bose Ride, the floor of the cab is accelerating downward. The computer tells the linear actuator to provide an upward force, carrying the driver over the pothole,” Rosen said.
“At the other end, the force will be pushing up, the actuator tells it to go down with the truck floor, keeping the driver level.
In the process, the actuator converts to being a generator: When the road goes down – it uses energy to push down and hold up the seat. When the road goes back, you recover energy from the road to hold the driver up.”
The Bose Ride can also be turned off – and often is – when drivers jockey trailers in yards, acting as a conventional OEM seat, making it two seats in one.
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