Hot car accidents -why has tech not come to the rescue yet?

[Sophi13]

The 1 year old twins who died in their dad's hot car in Bronx after being forgotten by him are the 24th case of infant deaths in hot cars just this year. The average is 38 cases a year. It's understandably a really rare occurrence to forget your child in your car, but a horrifically tragic one if it does happen. This is easily preventable by simple tech like motion sensors or alarm systems to tell the parents/ care givers that hey, you can't lock your car, you're kid's still in their car seat. Or an alert if any motion is detected in the car once you've left it, there are so many simple possibilities. Why is this not a law enforced mandatory safety feature of all car seats yet? Why are we still having such tragic, easily-preventable deaths in 2019? Would love to know if there are any companies working on this. As a mom of a toddler, out actually as just a human being, it's disturbing to see babies dying when we have the technology to prevent such accidents.

[laken]

There's a bill that's been held up for some time, called the Hot Car Act. It would mandate safety features like you mentioned. Some cars already have these features, Hyundai for example has a quite robust one. https://www.kidsandcars.org/2019/07/31/hyundai-to-expand-chi...

There are also third party devices being made to add these features to cars yourself. These third-party ones are generally a thermometer and a weight detector that can sound an alarm and send alerts if it gets triggered. Here's one of those: https://www.sensealife.com/

[Sophi13]

Good to know there are third party devices out there at least. Eventually would love to see this functionality in-built in all car seats so even parents who think "this would never happen to me" have to have it because seriously, could happen to anyone.

Thanks for sharing Sensealife's link, I've shared it in many online parenthood communities, maybe it could help save a life.

[FiatLuxDave]

I see the ultimate solution to be a way of making cars not be hot when parked. I live in Florida, and the first 10 minutes of every car ride is the AC trying to get rid of the residual heat from being parked. I would happily spend $5000 more on a car that was not a hot-box when parked. There is no law of physics that says that the car interior must be sealed when the occupant leaves the car.

There are third-party solutions like https://www.walmart.com/ip/Solar-Powered-Car-Vent-Window-Fan... , but this is just a workaround for the fact that the typical car is not properly vented for a warm climate while parked. I understand that there are theft concerns with more venting, and that for cars in cold climates you would rather the car hold its heat while parked. Nevertheless, I think that car companies could solve this problem easily by having extra vents which would open when the car was put in park to keep the car interior at around the same temperature as the outside air.

[godot]

Interestingly I have recently purchased one of those third-party solutions (not the one you linked, one that is supposedly an even stronger fan), and these have pretty minimal effect. It helps a little bit, that's about it.

I think it's not as simple as just having more venting. When I lived in Sacramento a popular method is to leave a 0.5-1 inch gap on all the windows while parked. It actually helps quite a bit (hot air exits near the top end of the car interior), but when the car is under the sun for long enough, at best the temperature in the car may be 100F (instead of 120-140F with all windows rolled up), which is still enough to be a killer. In those sorts of temperatures I think you actually need an AC system running for it to have a real effect.

[FiatLuxDave]

Yes, those little solar fans are pretty ineffective. Cracking the windows helps but is not as good as rolling them all down. I don't know of any cases of a child dying in a car with windows rolled down but I suppose it is possible. It is mainly children being left in sealed cars which results in fatalities.

I was thinking more like venting which was designed to use the temperature difference to pull air through the car, like the designs used in desert vernacular architecture. Maybe something like a miniature Persian windcatcher, or a vent in the roof and floor which open when the car is parked to allow convection through the interior. But really anything to make the car less like a sealed hotbox.

[Sophi13]

I totally feel you on the first 10 mins thing haha. I usually stand out with all doors open, ac on full for like 5 minutes before I even get in. It's a problem almost everywhere and can't wait to have an effective solution to that. Someone in this thread shared that tesla doesn't let the car heat up to higher than 100 degrees, hopefully other car manufacturers take note.

[Sophi13]

I agree about 'nag ' alerts which trigger every time being quite useless - if a parent is so phased out they forget their child they're probably going to tune out routine alerts as well. And yes motion sensors would be costly. So let's go even more basic. Seems like these accidents happen predominantly in rear facing car seats. So just a light at the back of the car seat which turns on when the seat belt is fastened would indicate there's a baby in it. Kinda like an "occupied" sign on airline restrooms. If the baby's seat belt is fastened it's a sure indicator there's a baby in it ( I mean who re-fastens the belt after taking their kid out lol) and the light would be visible to the driver through the rear view mirror or when they get out. Can't say much about manufacturers trying to escape liability but you're probably right about that. Apparently there is a bill being presented for a law to make all car manufacturers install alerts to check back seats but again, routine alerts are easily ignorable

[Someone1234]

What would the tech solution look like?

A lot of the "solutions" today are nothing more than generic nags when you shut off the car based on nothing more than any weight on the rear seats, which people quickly learn to filter out (since an empty car seat triggers them every time).

Motion sensors and infrared based sensors aren't reliable for babies in particular (due to lack of motion during sleep, or hats/thicker cloths/blankers).

The only tech solutions that may work today are:

- Cameras above the seats and image recognition, but this is expensive to get right. It could be used for other things which is a perk (like security, or "child mirror" usage).

- Integration into the car seats themselves (e.g. when the harness is clipped, it completes a circuit). But how does the car seat communicate with the vehicle itself?

Plus liability has to be considered. If the vehicle manufacturers (or car seat manufacturers) do nothing at all they aren't liable. But ironically if they try to make this problem less prevalent but fall short, they can be suited for that failure (and or be forced to generate expensive recalls).

I apologise for bringing up politics: But this is an area where government could help. If car/carseat manufacturers had liability immunity and or a government body that spends money developing the tech' I could definitely see it take off.

I'd personally like to see a 3.5mm jack receptacle inside the latch-anchor opening. A carseat plugs in. It completes a simple electrical circuit. The car's infotainment unit now "knows" a child is onboard.

But that's just one idea. Maybe there's others. I think liability, cost, and practicality are real problems though. The technological solutions need some real thought. I just like the above because K.I.S.S.

[taf2]

Tesla has overheat protection - cabin won’t exceed ~100f

[Spooky23]

It’s costly, as in more than $0.

My previous car cost nearly $40k and could be trivially be rendered disabled by my 3 year old turning on a rear overhead light. My dad had an 80s car that timed out those lights, and I would guess that the parts and assembly would add less than a dollar per light to the bill of materials.