This Nissan Juke Can Tell When You're Dangerously Dehydrated

You’ve heard of devices that can judge whether you’ve had too much to drink, but now there’s one that can tell whether you haven’t drunk enough.

We’re not talking about alcohol, though: Nissan has worked with Dutch ‘design brand’ Droog to create a driver’s seat and steering wheel trimmed in a sweat-sensing material that can tell how hydrated you are. In turn, the prototype Juke can warn drivers that they need to hit the bottle. Of water.

Called ‘Soak’, the sweat-sensing technology changes colour when it’s in contact with perspiration. Presumably, when you’re normally hydrated there’s a small amount of sweat to speak of at the seat and steering wheel contact points, whereas when you’re short on water there’s less.

A study of 1000 drivers conducted by Leasing Options found that two thirds of British drivers don’t know when they’re dehydrated, but a 2013 study by two London-based universities found that people’s reactions were nearly always better after drinking water. Slow reactions could be the difference between dodging a crash, and the other thing…

Nissan has no plans to put the colour-changing sweat seat or steering wheel into production, but don’t be surprised if something subtler than this makes it to the mainstream at some point.