An alarm system for children forgotten in cars in the United States

In twenty years, more than 800 children died of heat, forgotten in the car of their parents in the United States. To limit this dramatic situation, automakers are committed to installing alarms in their vehicles.

An alarm to compensate for the carelessness of parents. By 2025, major automakers will be installing alarm systems on almost all of their vehicles in the United States so that children will not be forgotten in the back seat.

According to US parliamentarians, more than 800 children left behind cars parked on a parking lot have died of heat in the United States over the past two decades. Last year was particularly deadly with 53 deaths, the highest figure in twenty years.

US Congress Initiative

The twenty manufacturers who decided Wednesday to respond to the initiative of the US Congress, which discusses the possibility of imposing a system of reminder of the presence of a child in the back of a vehicle on new registrations, represent nearly 98% of the US market.

These are General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, for its part, has committed to eventually adopt this system of recall in all its vehicles sold in the world but warned that the deployment schedule will vary from one country to another. The South Korean manufacturer Hyundai, for its part, intends to equip most of its vehicles sold in the United States of this system by 2022.

Already installed in some vehicles

Since 2016, GM has been offering on some of its models an audible and visual reminder system on the dashboard inviting the driver to check that a child has not been forgotten in the rear seat before leaving the vehicle. Recall systems generally detect the presence of a child when the rear door of the vehicle has been opened at startup. The most sophisticated models benefit from ultrasonic sensors capable of detecting the movements of children and pets.

At Hyundai, the system will sound an audible warning and send an alert on the driver's smartphone if a child is missed. The Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill in July to force automakers to install presence detection technology on their new vehicles.

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An alarm system for children forgotten in cars in the United StatesOuest-France.fr

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