Finally! Toyota’s new patent means you’ll never scrabble under your car seat for loose change, phones and snacks again
Toyota has filed a patent for a new gadget that'll collect lost items so you don't have to hunt around underneath your car seat
EVERY driver has dropped something down the side of their car seat and seen it disappear without trace.
And more often than not, you'll drop a bit of change just as you're approaching a toll booth.
But the days of scrabbling around in the footwell searching for lost house keys, snacks, loose change or smartphones could be at an end.
And we've got Toyota to thank for closing the motoring blackhole between our car seat, door and centre console.
The firm has filed a patent for a clever new gadget that'll collect any items and present them back to you.
The design for the tech has been filed at the US Patent & Trademark website with detailed sketches highlighting how it could work.
A chute sits in the gap on both sides of the seat to funnel items that fall down onto a collection area under the seat.
A motor then allows the driver or passenger to move the platform in order to recover your lost possessions.
A version where the system automatically collects items and shoots them back out is also included in the sketches.
With a seemingly simple solution possible it's amazing nobody has come up with it before.
Although at the moment it's just in the patent pending stage so there's no guarantee when - or even if - Toyota will bring it to market.
Toyota isn't the first manufacturer to be caught filing patents for handy tech.
We reported how Ford had filed plans for bike rack that slides back into your bumper when not in use.
