Nissan, the Japanese carmaker, is now making autonomous chairs.

Most people are familiar with waiting in line. In the UK, you do it at the bank. In the US, you do it at the DMV or post office. Queues are a thing everywhere in the world, and almost everyone has a day when they hate standing in them. Well, Nissan has come up with a solution to the problem.

It has introduced a fleet of ProPilot Chairs. A ProPilot Chair is a self-driving seat, and it's equipped with sensors that allow the chair to detect and follow the another ProPilot Chair in front of it, and any empty chairs in the line will automatically glide to the back. The chairs won't take you down the road to the cinema, but if you're lazy and fed up with standing in lines, they will alleviate some of your woes when it comes to queuing. 

Nissan said the chairs' technology is based on the same system that's currently available in the Serena minivan, which isn't completely autonomous, but its forward-facing cameras and on-board sensors allow it to drive around corners, slow down, etc. Keep in mind Nissan is one of several companies planning to make its autonomous vehicles ready for crowded city centers by 2020.

The ProPilot Chairs are currently on display at Nissan's public gallery in Japan, and they will be trialled at restaurants in the country from 2017.