Although cases where children are mistakenly left in sweltering cars make headlines, these incidents occur a lot more often than many of us realize. According to KidsAndCars.org, more than 900 children have died in hot cars in the U.S. since 1990, with 52 of those deaths coming this year alone. A new alert system is trying to limit these deaths going into 2020.
Car Seat CoPilot Automatic Alert System is designed to alert parents or caregivers if they accidentally leave a child behind in the car. A clip that latches onto the child’s car seat uses a radio frequency signal that triggers an alarm if the paired car’s key fob reaches 10 feet or farther away from the vehicle.
The system does not use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or cellular data to ensure that it will always work no matter what.
“Parents will do anything to keep their children safe from harm, but as we’ve seen in the rising number of incidents, there is a real need for change in the way that parents and caregivers go about protecting their child,” said Rick Bond, president and founder of American Home Safety Products, the company that created this technology. “While it’s not realistic to shelter your children from every harmful event or risk, with the Car Seat CoPilot Automatic Alert System, parents can now take precautionary measures without compromising time or money [while] finding a suitable solution for their families on the go.”
The Car Seat CoPilot launched on December 2 and has a starting price of $50.
A press release about the technology warns parents that leaving your child in a car even in the cold months poses a threat to their safety.
This isn’t the first technology of its kind that has tried to solve the problem of leaving a child in a car. There’s even artificial intelligence-powered technology that uses radar and machine learning to stop vehicle doors from locking and sound an alarm. The algorithm can reportedly predict the number of occupants in a car with 100% accuracy.
Technologies like these two could alert surrounding people if a child somehow gets into a vehicle and becomes stuck or is purposely or accidentally left inside a car, potentially saving a child from becoming another statistic.
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