GREENSBORO, NC — Volvo wants drivers to be comfy in the saddle.

The truck builder is now including the high-tech Bose Ride seat as a factory-installed option on VNM and VNL highway tractors.

Beginning mid-summer, Volvo will also become the first manufacturer to offer Sears Seating’s new premier driver’s seat, the Atlas II, as a factory-installed option.

The Bose system comes from the same people who brought you Bose loudspeakers and noise cancelling headphones; and the Bose driver seat does to road vibrations what those headphones do to background noise.

Through a combination of a traditional air-ride seat and a sensor system that continuously senses, analyzes and counteracts forces from the road, the Bose seat provides drivers with significantly higher ride quality.

Drivers are more comfortable, suffer less fatigue, get fewer headaches and not as man sore backs.

Bose has just launched a nine-month study with a variety of carriers across North America to measure the affect of these seats on driver retention. Winnipeg’s Bison Transport is installing the Bose seats in 60 of its rigs as part of that study.

The seat weighs about 180 lbs and is operated by an airline and a direct connection to the battery.