Ford has a robotic butt it actually calls ‘Robutt’ (via MIT Technology Review) that it uses to test its car seats, helping to make sure they’re durable enough to withstand numerous backside encounters over their long useful lifetime. It’s not that surprising – car manufacturers use plenty of robots to mimic repeated stresses on car parts to make sure they can last a long time. But… Robutt.
Ford’s robotic ass will simulate a person getting into and out of a seat around 25,000 times, quickly replicating about a decade or so of actual car seat use, and then its seat designs either pass or fail and are accordingly set for production or retooled.