
Hot car accidents -why has tech not come to the rescue yet? - Sophi13
The 1 year old twins who died in their dad&#x27;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&#x27;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&#x2F; care givers that hey, you can&#x27;t lock your car, you&#x27;re kid&#x27;s still in their car seat. Or an alert if any motion is detected in the car once you&#x27;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&#x27;s disturbing to see babies dying when we have the technology to prevent such accidents.
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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...](https://www.kidsandcars.org/2019/07/31/hyundai-to-expand-child-
monitoring-systems-to-more-models-by-2022/)

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/](https://www.sensealife.com/)

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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.

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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...](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Solar-Powered-Car-
Vent-Window-Fan-for-Car-Auto-Vehicle/613091786) , 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.

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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

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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.

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taf2
Tesla has overheat protection - cabin won’t exceed ~100f

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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.

