Human Harmony In Motion

Mazda’s ActivSync engineering philosophy puts your wellbeing above all else.

Here’s a curious truth. Mazda engineers spend as much time thinking about how the human body works as they do creating ground-breaking technological components. They think about our posture, our balance, and even the way we breathe. Why? Because they have a vision: to build cars that improve, not deteriorate, your health.

Of course, this focus on harmony of motion through breathing and posture is not a Mazda invention. The human body has been under scrutiny since time immemorial, and there are disciplines such as martial arts and ballet dedicated to perfecting the way we move, both consciously and unconsciously.

For aikido master Hiroaki Kobayashi, the right posture is all about unlocking our full potential.

For aikido master Hiroaki Kobayashi, who runs Aikido Kobayashi Dojo, the right posture is all about unlocking our full potential. “We rarely use our upper ribs now, for example, but our ancestors in the Edo period used them a lot,” he says. “The aikido moves they invented require us to use our ribs flexibly to achieve the correct posture and move our bodies from the core so that our movements become natural and smooth. If you consciously project your movements from the core when you’re cooking or cleaning, it helps with shoulder or hip pain.”

Mazda is determined to create a “balance of human body and mind” for drivers.

This brings us back to the idea of creating vehicles in which the more you drive, the healthier you become. For example, Mazda has been hard at work creating the optimal driving posture that targets trunk muscle activity, which in turn works in tandem with the brain to keep the body balanced when you accelerate, decelerate, or turn a corner. You do this unconsciously and without thinking, in just the same way the right posture leads to better breathing: slouching encumbers the diaphragm, which can result in shallow breathing and ultimately fatigue. These are things we simply don’t consider when we drive, but are things that Mazda is determined to perfect in its pursuit to create a “balance of human body and mind” for drivers, explains Masaki Chiba, General Research Manager at Mazda’s Integrated Control System Development Division.

To empower people and put health before all else is an approach Mazda calls ActivSync (to activate the mind, body, and spirit, and synchronise with people). Focusing on emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing through a multitude of touchpoints (steering, braking, accelerating, and sitting position, for example) is testament to the human-centric engineering approach, but ActivSync goes further than that.