Ask Therminator; He Knows Comfort

A wooden man bearing $30,000 worth of electronic sensors is helping Ford Motor Co. decide when the inside of a car is too hot, too cool or just right.

Ford’s climate control engineers call him “the Therminator,” with apologies to the cinema cyborg played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Therminator comes with six sensors protruding from small holes in the wood at the throat, elbows, lap and knee. Engineers use readings from the sensors to design heating and cooling systems that make drivers and passengers comfortable as quickly as possible--whether it is 20 below outside or 90 above.

“The consistency of these meters is pretty amazing,” said Robert J. Hutter, supervisor of advanced engineering for Ford’s Climate Control Division.

During one test, 1,300 people were placed in a room with the comfort meter. The sensor’s measurements ended up “in line with when 95% of people said they were comfortable,” Hutter said.