Monday, July 08, 2013

Things They Should Invent: car alarm that goes off if a child is left in a car seat

Recently in the news, there have been a number of cases of babies and toddlers dying after being forgotten in a car on a hot day.  This makes me think they should invent something to alert parents if they walk away from the car with the kid still in the baby seat.

Some of the media coverage (can't seem to google up the exact article) mentioned that there are some alerts that work with smartphones, but those depend on the parent having a smartphone and having the app installed and the smartphone being on and charged.  If your battery's dead, or you've turned off your phone for a meeting, or it's just at the bottom of your purse and you're in a noisy environment, you might fail to notice the alert.

I propose something simpler and more immediate:  if the car is turned off, there is weight in the carseat, there is no weight in the driver's seat, and all the doors are closed, the annoying horn-honking car alarm goes off.  (Proposed added bonus feature: rather than the usual horn honky car alarm sound it produces the sound of a baby crying.)

The advantage of this model is it draws attention to the car, even if it for some reason it fails to attract the parent's attention.  I know people generally disregard and curse out the source of car alarms, but someone walking past might take a peek in, and if the car is parked somewhere staffed, the staff might notice.  This increases the chances that someone will notice the baby's presence and intervene.

Ideas for how this could be engineered: cars could have a built in attacher thingy for baby seats (baby seats have to be physically attached to the car by more than just a seatbelt. The ones I've seen are attached by a bolt-like thing behind the back seat.)  The attacher thing recognizes when a car seat is attached (the same way the seatbelt detector detects when the seatbelt is fastened) and then there could be a weight detector in the seat of the car (maybe there could be a button to press to "zero" it to an empty baby seat).  The car would therefore know when there's a baby seat present and when the baby seat is occupied.

The other advantage of this model is it wouldn't require any proactiveness or diligence on the part of the parents.  If it doesn't occur to the parents to take precautions against accidentally leaving the baby in the car, the car will do so anyway, much like how some cars already warn you if your seatbelt isn't done up or if you've left the lights on.

5 comments:

laura k said...

A great TTSI. It's unbelievable to me that it's necessary, but it clearly is. I wonder if the car companies have thought of it but are afraid of liability issues - "The alarm failed to sound and my child died!"

impudent strumpet said...

I really hope liability doesn't work that way!

V said...

I've emailed the three large mfr of automobiles "I've read about yet another young child dying in a hot car. I can see why manufacturers may have a problem with installing an alarm since things can and do go wrong. No one needs another law suit. What about coming up with an alarm that simply reminds the driver that they have items in the back seat? You wouldn't be specifying a baby/child but giving the busy and sometimes distracted person a nice reminder that they're walking away from purchases etc. Please do something about this awful and avoidable occurrance. Thanks."

impudent strumpet said...

That's a good approach! As long as they have the option of "zeroing" it so that it doesn't go off just because there's an empty car seat in the back seat, because then people would become immune to it.

Joe Dorsey said...

I've invented an alarm that accomplishes what you described. Please check it out at www.backseatbabyalarm.com. I am now looking for parents to purchase for $19 as field testers to get feedback.