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On the Move

Japan's solution to queues? Self-driving chairs

They’re being tested at certain restaurants.

HATE STANDING IN line at your favourite restaurant?

Japanese carmaker Nissan claims to have just the thing for those sore legs.

A company video released earlier this week re-enacts a busy restaurant with patrons waiting outside.

日産自動車株式会社 / YouTube

They’re all sitting in a row of chairs but they won’t have to stand when the next hungry diner is called to a table.

Instead, the chairs — equipped with autonomous technology that detects the seat ahead — glide along a path toward the front of the line. The now empty chair at the front moves out of pole position.

The system, which is similar to the kind used in Nissan’s autonomous vehicle technology, will be tested at select restaurants in Japan this year, Nissan said.

(It) appeals to anyone who has queued for hours outside a crowded restaurant: it eliminates the tedium and physical strain of standing in line.

Although Tokyo has some 160,000 restaurants, long queues are not uncommon.

What do you think of self-driving chairs?


Poll Results:

Useless (1167)
A great idea (924)
I'm not sure (250)

- © AFP, 2016

Read: Without the budget of Google, these Waterford students created a self-driving car>

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