Two-year-old becomes sixth child to die in a hot car so far this year
Two-year-old becomes sixth child to die in a hot car so far this year
Police are yet to determine how the two-year-old got into the vehicle with cause of death under investigation
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We created laws to require seat belts, maybe it’s time we create laws that require the manufacturers to install tech to detect kids and pets left in hot vehicles and alert the authorities or at the very least sound an alarm.
Seatbelts are simple. Aside from the big brother distopian nightmare this proposal enables, I'm not convinced such a thing it technically possible.
I can see the headlines about the first time it’s rolled out… all the headlines are short people being mad that they were flagged as kids
Or the police officers who rushed on scene to find a bag of groceries in the back seat...after smashing a window...
'Where... dog?'
A confused police officer shredds a bag of veggies with a shotgun, claims self-defense.
I've had rental cars chirp back at me when I tried to lock them because my backpack was in the back seat.
I don't have kids. At least give me a fuse to pull.
Perhaps it could be done with a pressure plate and thermometer?
I think the pressure sensor thing works fine. I just put my backpack on the floorboard or in the trunk and the problem was gone.
As far as forcing it, lol, I feel like we have better things to fuss with, but meh.
PIR occupancy sensor + thermometer + window open sensor + seat occupancy sensor/scale + door lock/child lock sensor + decibel limit on microphone already in car
Technically possible, yes. Most of the equipment is already there. It's just a matter of tuning everything to work together to solve the specific problem. The bigger problem in my eyes is most people would treat this as a perfect solution instead of a last resort like what happened with Tesla's FSD.
Or, "the bad guys will just heat my car to open my windows and steal my kid," probably
I've seen doors with motion sensor locks on the inside get defeated by vapes and inflatables. Make no mistake, this will get weaponized if implemented. It'll be the Kia boyz all over again.
That's so much thermal mass. Very little other than the sun will have the energy output to do this. Certainly not in the time it would need to take to steal a car.
This is already in a bunch of cars. Just doesn't call police.
It’s more a question of money than feasibility. I’m pretty sure a couple manufacturers already have basic capabilities similar to this
Just turn on the fan if there's someone inside and it gets above 40C
Aside from the big brother distopian nightmare this proposal enables
A car knowing when I left a child in the backseat? Basically the same as my thoughts being censored by Big Brother.
It's my right and my freedom to let people I am responsible for die in a heatwave!
Some cars have that already. I rented a Hyundai Elantra recently when my car was being serviced. It came with Rear Occupant Alert. Ultrasonic sensors can detect if there's movement in the backseat when a driver exits the vehicle.
They tried. Lobbyists got Congress to shoot it down.
It's not difficult. Functioning designs already exist. Hell most if not all cars today have weight sensors to determine airbag deployment.
If it saves one kid, then I'm all for it.
By the way: this famous article is a must-read for this topic
Almost all modern cars (made in the last few years) have some kind of warning when you turn the car off and something is weighing down the backseat. My car has it.
Though it's possible to turn it off, I think it should be required to not be toggle-able.
As someone who has no kids and doesn't transport kids, no thanks. I don't need it going off because I have random stuff in the back.
Gee, I didn't realize two little dings like every third time you turn off your car (if there's something on the seat) was so damn annoying. In fact, I hardly notice it even when I'm hauling stuff, which is about half the time I'm in my car.
It's not like it's the seatbelt warning that constantly goes off until you finally put on your seatbelt.
I just don't like meaningless sounds because if you get used to ignoring them, they aren't useful. You'll just ignore it when it actually matters.
Ever read stories where people get backed over by forklifts and such with the obnoxious backup sounds? It's the same thing. They're used to hearing and ignoring the sound cause it's not around them. So when it actually matters it's literally in one ear and out the other.
Yeet-the-baby-tron™
This brand new tech saves lives!!
Upon detecting a small humanoid within the car after it has been locked the system automatically opens the sunroof & violently yeets the human at least 100m in a random direction to maximised it's chances of getting some shade.wasn't there something about a car theft with the child in the car and the company wouldn't give the police the gps access because the owner wasn't subscribed? that would be all that happens for this because US and Canada suck at regulating things.
I mean what about a big red panic button, if pressed starts sounding alarms while also opening the windows. Only works in immobile cars and turns off when long pressed. Done.
Babies cannot press panic buttons...
That's when you have to teach the baby to do it when needed
I was imagining more the kind of situation where a kid manages to get in and can not get out again. For babies all you need to make sure is you are not an idiot.
None of these people were idiots.
Check out this article: Fatal Distraction, it won a Pulitzer Prize. It's about how the mind works and why this incident keeps happening over and over again.
this was one long article but did read it. I have to confess my mental model was mainly a continued neglect and "the kid will be fine in the car alone for five minutes" and then forgetting the kid kind of situations. But a memory lapse without intentional leaving is apparently quite possible.
“I was that guy, before. I’d read the stories, and I’d go, ‘What were those parents thinking?’ “
Yea I am this guy, luckily I am not planning to make kids so I hopefully will never have to find myself in his shoes (and can keep making blatant generalizations :p)
Props for having an open mind!
Please no. Car manufacturers are already terrible with privacy
Then the problem is with privacy laws that allow abuse and poor regulation, not with more capable cars.
The problem is with shitty zoning laws that enforce car-dependency -- people wouldn't be accidentally leaving their kids to die in hot cars if they didn't need a car to get places to begin with.
Make people stupid, make people fat, they spend more money, can't argue with that.
World gets obese, world gets dumb, at least we made money, oh no we're being burned to death by the sun.
It can be done in a way that does not affect privacy. If you lock your car while there's still a person detected on the back seat, it will sound an alarm.
Yup we should let preventable deaths happen just so you can feel an inch more private.
Totally reasonable.
You can't fix stupid negligence with tech.
To quote my dog’s vet, not only can you fix stupid, but it’s quite a simple procedure.
I'm not sure that performing that operation on humans is considered acceptable.
Not by vets… and certainly not without consent.
But men get it done all the time. For us it’s called a “vasectomy”.
You can't fix human arrogance.