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.
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…
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.
Seatbelts are simple. Aside from the big brother distopian nightmare this proposal enables, I’m not convinced such a thing it technically possible.
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!
This is already in a bunch of cars. Just doesn’t call police.
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 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.
It’s more a question of money than feasibility. I’m pretty sure a couple manufacturers already have basic capabilities similar to this
I’ve had rental cars chirp back at me when I tried to lock them because my backpack was in the back seat.
Perhaps it could be done with a pressure plate and thermometer?
I don’t have kids. At least give me a fuse to pull.
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
You can’t fix stupid negligence with tech.
You can’t fix human arrogance.
To quote my dog’s vet, not only can you fix stupid, but it’s quite a simple procedure.
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.
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.
I don’t understand why this is so common in the US.
Car dependency
Lots of really hot climates, lots of cars, 3rd largest population in the world, and a very active news media.
If India or Africa could afford cars you be hearing about it a lot there too.
3rd largest population in the world
I’m curious how you came about this statistic?
I literally live in a country that’s hotter than the US and this rarely if ever happens. I’m not sure it’s just media bias.
So many possible factors. Family support allowing more sleep, less car-centric cities, less tradition of single parent transporting the kid around while on errands, etc etc.
I see it’s time to repost this:
Fatal distraction, a Pulitzer Prize winning article
Tearjerker article about how parents who’ve been through this felt, why it happens, and what car manufacturers could do to prevent it.
The headline:
Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime?
YES! It is and it should be. It’s neglect! There’s no reason to keep reading when the headline asks a bullshit question.
I also wouldn’t read an article titled, Should murder be wrong?
There’s a reason the article won a Pulitzer. Maybe you could give it a try
An award winning journalist, the only one to have will two Pulitzers for features, this being one of them: “here’s a horrifying thing that can happen to anyone.”
Some random dipshit: “what an idiot.”
People, if there’s a child in the back seat, and it’s hot out… call the cops.
If the child isn’t moving… pound on the window to try and rouse them. If you can’t…. Go to the opposite front window and break it.
(You’ll have to be creative. It’s not easy to break automotive glass Something hard and concentrated. Or a big ass rock.)
Also, probably preaching to the choir…. But….
DONT LEAVE YOUR KID IN THE FUCKING CAR.
The people that do this aren’t on here.
They are. The people who do this? They are you and me and your neighbor.
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.
People on Lemmy can’t afford cars and are too frightened by intimacy to conceive any children
Kids are scary because they remind me of me and I can’t have another one of those bastards running around, muckin about
I thought that but they’re more like your best parts and a pure version of you that your parents didn’t fuck up yet
Yes they are. And if you think you’re better than these people and couldn’t forget and have a slip up you are wrong.
If you’re an AI, I’m going to call you ChatGPreTarded.
They’re actually right. In most cases people simply forget to put a window down or sometimes that the kid is in the car.
There’s also no need for ableist language like that.
Why leave the kid in the car at all? My kids go inside with me if the wife isn’t there wanting to stay in the car. Doesn’t matter if I’m going in a store for 2 minutes.
The crazy thing is that the news here in the Midwest tells people each year to put something important, like their phone, in the car seat to remember the kid.
Nobody INTENDS to leave their kid in the car to die.
Fatal Distraction is a Pulitzer Prize winning article that examines how the mind works and why this sort of incident keeps happening over and over again.
God shut the fuck up.
No u
Splendid job casually tossing hard Rs out there as Linus would say.
Thank you, thank you *takes bow
We hope. Probably preaching to the choir, but even five minutes in 90+, it can get dangerously hot inside a car.
Also, even if it’s not, there’s other dangers. It’s all around just not cool.
I always assumed that was a notice to people stealing cars from the lot.
You know. Make sure the car with the keys wasn’t left running cuz the kid was sleeping.
Definitely don’t want the 3 kinds of hell for stealing a car with a kid in it. (Cops gonna totally blame you aren’t they PIT lil’ Tommy into the ditch.)
It’s hot enough to cook an egg in there (I think), so please don’t cook your children too. They’re not food.
Why’s it always gotta be a 2yo. :/
I’ll be sure to hug my daughter extra tomorrow.
Probably old enough the parent thinks they’ll be fine on their own for a bit, but young enough to be a hassle to bring along on a “short” errand.
I wonder if that’s because it’s one of the most mentally draining ages.
Often the parents forget about them rather than intentionally leave them with no windows open.
