Car seat alarms to alert parents if a kid is left in a hot car

Welcome to , an ongoing series at Mashable that looks at how to take care of – and deal with – the kids in your life. Because Dr. Spock is nice and all, but it’s 2019 and we have the entire internet to contend with.

It’s the summertime news story that’s become all too common – a parent leaves a young child behind in a hot car, leading to another tragic death. 

As of August 8, 29 children have died in 2019 from heat stroke inside a vehicle, including two New York City twins left by their father for eight hours as he worked on July 26. The National Safety Council, which tracks hot car deaths across the United States, reports than on average 38 children under 15 die each year of heatstroke related to being trapped in a hot car – whether due to caregiver error or a child climbing into a vehicle and being unable to escape.

Last year was the deadliest since the organization began tracking hot car deaths in 1998, with 53 children succumbing to heat stroke inside a car. American Academy of Pediatrics statistics also show that heatstroke is the leading cause of non-crash vehicular deaths in children under 15.

While safety experts often offer memory-based tips to help parents prevent such tragedies – such as leaving a phone, purse, or briefcase in the back seat to remind them to check for a child’s presence – technology also continues to evolve to help caregivers avoid the memory lapses that can lead to hot car deaths. 

Sensors

The CYBEX line of infant car seats, strollers, and other baby-related gear offers SensorSafe technology on some of its products. The SensorSafe clip attaches to the seat’s harness system and syncs to a smartphone to provide alerts when a child is left unattended or the child’s temperature becomes too hot or too cold. Alerts are also given when a child has been seated too long, or when children unbuckle themselves when the car is moving. 

“We’re trying to give peace of mind to families that this can really happen to anybody,” said Sarah Haverstick, a child passenger safety technician and safety advocate for Cybex and Evenflo. “I don’t think most caregivers can put themselves in that place to say, ‘gosh, maybe I could forget my child.’ That’s why it’s nice that this is integrated with the car seat.”

The Elepho eClip Baby Reminder is a small alarm that can attach to a car seat belt, regular seat belt, or diaper bag strap and syncs with a smartphone through Bluetooth or a key fob to send alerts if a child is left in a car. It activates when drivers walk more than 15 feet from the car without a child. If the driver moves further away, pre-designated contacts will begin receiving text messages about a child left behind. The instruction manual advises users to check manufacturers’ recommendations before attaching the eClip to the car seat strap or an adult seat belt. 

Apps

Sometimes a smartphone reminder is all one needs to avoid a life-altering mistake. Waze, the Google-owned GPS navigation app that crowdsources user data to help drivers plot their trips, features an alert to remind users of a child’s presence in the backseat of a car. The “Child Reminder” function can be selected from the settings page. Go to your account > Go to Settings > Reminders > Child reminder.

The Kars 4 Kids Safety app for Android connects to Bluetooth and sends an alert when after the engine is turned off and the driver leaves the car with her phone. Users can personalize the alarm with their child’s picture, and the alert will appear as a reminder to take the child before leaving the area. 

Available for Android and iPhone, The BackSeat app doesn’t require connections to hardware or Bluetooth technology, but can detect vehicle speeds and send reminders to users to check the backseat after the car is parked. It also offers a backup plan when users don’t respond to phone alerts by sending email and text messages to three designated contacts letting them know that a child might have been left in a hot car. The vehicle’s location and description will also be shared. 

In-car technology 

In 2016, General Motors took the lead among automotive manufacturers by introducing the Rear Seat Reminder, a technology designed to nudge drivers to check their back seats as they exit their vehicles. It uses an audible alert and a front panel message to tell drivers to check the rear of their vehicle for occupants.

Rear Seat Reminder technology became standard on all new Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac four-door sedans, SUVs, and crossovers starting with the 2019 model year, and also will be standard on all 2020 model year GM pickup trucks, said GM spokesperson Phil Lienert. 

Kia, Nissan, and Subaru offer rear-seat alert systems in many of their models, according to Car and Driver, and Hyundai announced on July 31 – National Heatstroke Day – that it planned to incorporate the technology across all models by 2022. One of Hyundai’s newest innovations is the Ultrasonic Rear Occupant Alert, in which a sensor can detect the presence of a child (or pet) and activates a

The Hot Cars Act of 2019, introduced in the U.S. House and Senate after failing to pass in previous years, would mandate alert systems on new vehicles. 

“I see more awareness than when I began this work 12 years ago,” Haverstick said. “While I still don’t know that people are willing to put themselves in the mindset of ‘this could happen to me,’ I think we’re getting some of that education message out there about the brain component and memory, and how this really can happen to anybody.”