Headrest Vault

Today, we are talking about a Facebook video making the rounds with over a million views, featuring a product called 'The Headrest Safe.' Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. Someone looked at the standard, foam-filled headrest on a passenger car seat and thought: 'You know what this needs? A heavy-duty, 20-gauge steel lockbox hidden inside it.' The idea is that it’s 'hidden in plain sight' so you can stash cash, passports, or medication. To open it, you flap down the back cushion of the headrest to reveal a digital keypad or a biometric fingerprint scanner.

Now, look, from a pure fabrication standpoint, it’s clever engineering. It uses a universal two-prong post pattern, it slides right into the existing seat frame, and they even wrapped it in leatherette to try and match your factory interior.
But from a practical dashboard perspective? This lands squarely in the Tech Absurd category for a couple of hilarious reasons.

First, imagine trying to open this thing in an emergency. If you need to grab something quickly, you have to awkwardly reach backwards over your left shoulder from the driver's seat, blind-feel for a biometric fingerprint scanner or punch a PIN code into the back of your passenger’s head, all while your shoulder is completely contorted. It looks like a great way to pull a muscle.

But here is the absolute kicker: it gets even better. This isn't just a vault bolted into your car seat. It has a quick-release mechanism that leaves the metal prongs behind, allowing you to slide the vault out and carry it away with you like a little plastic briefcase. 

Imagine walking into a business meeting, a casual lunch, or your local cafe, and instead of a laptop bag or a backpack, you stroll in clutching a plastic lockbox shaped exactly like the top half of a car seat. Nothing says 'I am definitely carrying a large amount of cash' quite like walking into a shop with a piece of automotive furniture under your arm. You are bound to get some hilarious looks at the counter!

Of course the comments in the post ask the obvious question, what happens when the battery dies? Oh and drivers are already leaving comments online asking how to charge it because standard cables don't fit. If your headrest safe goes flat, whatever is inside is locked in permanent storage until you find the manual override key.

Overall, an interesting idea, a beautifully built piece of kit, but hiding a digital steel vault right where you’re supposed to rest your skull—and then walking around town with a headrest handbag—is one of the most glorious pieces of over-engineering I’ve seen in a while.

​Would you rock the headrest briefcase? Let us know on our socials.

Ep358

Image Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18QUxLgGBu/