# Flexible Coated Conductive Textiles as Ohmic Heaters in Car Seats
## 7 Future Prospective of Conductive Textiles in the Automotive Industry  
Electrically conductive textiles are constantly being brought into the automotive field. The future trend is the use of textile-based sensors, enabling non-driving activities integrated in the car interior and supporting a richer user experience. Automobile designers are focusing on the integration of lightweight and multifunctional smart textiles in car interiors. For instance, the demand of electrically conductive textiles is increasing to shape new technologies such as automated driving, entertaining in-car user interfaces, and creating unprecedented opportunities for designing further comfort [97]. Moreover, the new designs of car interiors will be integrated with modern technologies that assist the user in driving, such as navigation systems or voice assistant systems, where the user interface is essential to the way people perceive the driving experience. Scholars consider that the integration of smart-textile-based materials and the use of an adequate smart suit (providing a lot of information on the driver) will transform the car into a living space rather than just a means of transportation [98]. The conductive textile-based sensors will indicate the level of thermal comfort, the sense of sound and suffocation in the cabin, the level of concentration of the driver, reduced awareness, and much more. Therefore, there is an intense need to revisit the car interior and design a single system that will support the blend of both interaction design and interior design into a seamless union [99]. This new trend requires novel means for the applications of e-textiles (interactions seamlessly embedded within car fabrics or leather surfaces). Moreover, the novelties in car interiors are inclining to propose the e-textile input interfaces as tactile screensal means of controlling multimedia, windows, and A/C inside the car). We hope that further research will be  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Material**} & **Thickness (mm)** & \multirow{2}{*}{\
\begin{tabular}{c} **Surface** \\ **Mass (g/m\({}^{2}\))** \\ \end{tabular} } & \multirow{2}{*}{
\begin{tabular}{c} **Ultimate Tensile** \\ **Strength (MPa)** \\ \end{tabular} } & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Ultimate Tensile**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Ultimate Tensile**} \\  & & & **A** & **B** & **A** & **B** \\ \hline
1 & Artificial leather & 0.91 & 680.0 & 27.3 & 70.9 & 5.6 & 4.2 \\ \hline
2 & Leather & 0.98 & 640.1 & 56.7 & 49.7 & 20.8 & 20.5 \\ \hline
3 & Cotton canvas & 0.43 & 320.0 & 14.8 & 15.1 & 18.9 & 34.2 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Properties of the selected materials used in the study: A—longitudinal and B—transversal direction.  
conducted to overcome the highlighted gaps between the e-textiles and human-vehicle interaction (HVI) areas. Furthermore, the present gaps will inspire researchers to use electrically conductive textiles and develop fully automated vehicles (driving tasks will be removed from drivers, and all tasks will be non-driving tasks). Several techniques, along with their limitations and benefits, are described below in Table 3.