Range Rover’s next luxury addition: a car seat that vibrates to music

Many car manufacturers will surround you with speakers in an attempt to create an immersive sound, but Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) thinks your seat can play a role too. The company’s new Range Rover Sport SV Edition One features Subpac-powered “Body and Soul Seat” (fittingly, BASS) technology, whose headrest-mounted diaphragms and transducers provide haptic feedback in response to lower frequencies in your music. Whether you’re a driver or a passenger, you’ll feel the beats of a dance or rap song.

The system complements the Range Rover Sport’s 29-speaker Meridian audio system, which already has a subwoofer, but Jaguar Land Rover and Subpac also claim the vibrations can improve your health through six wellness programs. The companies point to research supported by JLR showing that BASS can help you relax and reduce stress by increasing heart rate variability. Provided it holds up in the real world, this could be the luxury SUV to get if you need to kick back on the commute home.

The Range Rover Sport SV Edition One has already sold out for its first year. You can register to be notified of other SV trim levels and there are hints that BASS will be more widely available going forward.

As good as this seat works, it’s just the beginning for the Subpac. The company is pitching its mix of haptics and bone conduction to movie theaters, music producers, VR simulation creators and gamers, and has a Flow platform that can bring vibrations to seats and wearables (think something like Lofelt’s Basslet). The firm also hopes to venture into the aviation and overall wellness space. Don’t be surprised if tactile audio finds its way into more of the devices you buy and use, even if it’s limited to premium products.