Following the logic that we must reconfigure the rules on who uses what school bathroom in order to satisfy what could be at most .3% of the population, we should then require all ~15M cars sold in the US each year to have such technology, just to prevent 38 parents from being stupid beyond belief. So they can recklessly endanger their kids in some other mode.
So when this fails, as all technology always does, the lawsuits will be enormous.
No technology is going to solve the problem of forgetting a kid in a hot car and leaving him to die. It’s not a technological problem.
Do people really think they can create a program on an electronic device that is a better human than they are? Is that the mental madness behind creating robots and “driverless” cars?
“The happens to an average of 38 kids every year”
Yet we never hear about more than 4 or 5 per year, because apparently it would depress people enough to stop buying newspapers or tuning into Big Media’s propaganda blast du jure.
But let’s all spend another $20 per child car seat for the 38 criminally irresponsible parents every year.
No, it could not happen to me.
You see, I am not brain dead, I’m not the brightest candle in the cave, but not so stupid as to leave a child unattended in a car.
I noticed a sign on the door of our local Walmart: “Did you forget and leave your child in the car”. It struck me then how our increasingly leftist oriented society is covering up willful neglect with “or gee, I forgot”.
We aren’t just talking about heat related deaths, we are also talking about kidnapping, sex crimes and other violence.
So, IMO, this article is just plain effing stupid. More leftist tripe. Only those truly responsible people will buy such devices and pay attention to the warnings.
I have been considering developing a technology to accomplish this. My biggest problem, the potential law suits if the device for whatever reason, fails to work just one time. No way I am going to touch that.
People who leave their small children in stifling hot cars.
A car seat that reminds you that you left your child in the car is for people who lock their keys in their car and frantically try to pull the lock knob with a coat hanger.
Someone stops and says, “What are you doing? That’s a convertible and the top’s down.”
And they reply, “Duh. Look at those clouds. It’s going to storm!”
If you need a car seat to warn you that you left your kid in the car, you shouldn’t be having kids in the first place...
In a thousand years or so, the history books on the Former United States will note that there were windows at fire stations where parents could leave their newborns and thus be rid of the burdens of parenting, and kid car seats that sent a message to mom and dad’s smartphone that they had left the kid behind in the burning hot car, and abortion centers that chopped up babies and sold them by the pound, and doctors that cut off kids’ body parts to help them in their delusion that their bodies were the wrong sex.
The history books will speculate whether the anti-child and anti-reproductive attitude of Americans contributed to the downfall, destruction and total demise of a once-great civilization.
Well, why don’t we require a flashing light in every home reminding you to feed your baby?
How about just remembering—or putting a post note on the dash board? You need special underwear to remind you to wipe your rear end?
Ok leaving a toddler in a hot car without the windows cracked is bad, but this whole madness that you can never leave a child in the car is nuts.
Hmm, a special seat to let you know you put your kid in the car so you won’t forget it. Priceless.
“safety advocates”
Directive #972,894: We strongly urge that you do not attempt to pick up your running lawnmower and trim hedges with it.
Your Consumer Product Safety Commission
No, it couldn’t.
It's undoubtedly happening more because of laws that requires baby carriers to be in the back seat and often facing away from the driver.
Cars make babies go to sleep. Sleeping babies are absolutely silent so there is no sound to remind the driver the baby is there. Then when they get out of the car, even if they glance in the back seat, the baby is not necessarily visible.
So all it takes is a long commute, maybe a change of schedule, and someone with a lot on their mind to make this more likely.
It would be interesting to see the male vs. female statistics on this.