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Vehicle: Car: Passengers
Child Car Seat Alarm   (+4)  [vote for, against]
Wifi or wired pressure sensors on driver's and child's seats indicate when the child is still in their seat but the driver isn't.

To prevent the tragedy of children being left in cars on hot days, this system would would sent an alarm, a cellphone warning, a beeping sound even escalating the alarm to a horn honking when there's a child in their car seat but the driver isn't.

This would start immediately when the driver parked and got out of their seat. I don't think people would mind a little dinging noise similar to when a car door isn't properly shut. I think parents would actually find in comforting to have that little reminder.

Nobody would ever leave their child in a car knowingly, but accidents do happen. It's the job of engineers and inventors to try to prevent accidents and this might be one way to do that.

Pressure sensitive would be preferable but optical or any other sensor could be looked at.

Could use it for pets too.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2024

I didn't realize how common this was. https://www.consume...14%20and%20younger.
This makes my heart ache. [doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2024]

Looks like this hasn't been done. The keychain in the link allows the kid to be left in the car if the battery dies or somebody else like a grandparent or other family member or babysitter is driving the car who's not familiar with the system or has the spare key without the alarm.

Mine would start the second you get up out of your seat and the sensor pads could be hard wired so you didn't need to change batteries.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2024


So this really hasn't been thought of. Okay.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2024


Again, as usual, read the idea.

There's sensors on the child's seat and the driver's seat. When there is no driver in the driver's seat but there's a child in the child's seat the alarm goes off.

None of the posted products do that.

Again= -driver, +child = alarm.

There may be a patent registered for this but I very much doubt it because it would have been made by now.

I know it breaks your heart, but this hasn't been done. 7 panic posts and you still haven't found this idea anywhere. Throw your little tantrum bone and move on.

When I develop this and start saving children's lives you can proudly say you didn't understand the idea and tried to quash it.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2024


//How soon after the driver leaves their seat does it trigger?//

//This would start immediately when the driver parked and got out of their seat.// Second paragraph in the description.

//Mine would start the second you get up out of your seat// First annotation. Not one, but two clearly stated explanations.

My god, please just read the idea for once. I think you see it's an idea of mine and go into some weird triggered mode and black out. 8 panic posts and a bone and not a clue as to what the actual idea is.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2024


//alert with little or no delay, got it.//

Wow. Just wow. For the forth (and final) time, THERE IS NO DELAY! That's what "IMMEDIATELY" and "WOULD START THE SECOND YOU GET OUT OF YOUR SEAT" means.

Please stop wasting my time. If you're going to show something has been done before you first need to have a clue as to what that something is.

If you read the idea and comprehend it, and there's something already out there that's the same, exactly the same, not similar, not a different approach, not sharing one or two similarities, fine. But if you just perceive "It's something you put in a car" and put up a link to an air freshener, you're wasting everybody's time.

Please don't ever apply for a job as a patent examiner.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2024


I think the immediate alarm would be very irritating, especially if you've just got out of the car specifically in order to then open the back door and get your small child out.

As cars today are so networked, another solution might be for the car to detect that you've left an infant behind and then, after a few seconds to phone you. You answer the phone and a cheery AI-generated voice says "Hi! Have you forgotten something?".
-- hippo, Jun 17 2024


An annoying ding to remind you that the groceries you put back there might have morphed into a child. Great idea.

I think cave men were actually pretty smart, let's not downgrade them.

//I think the immediate alarm would be very irritating, especially if you've just got out of the car specifically in order to then open the back door and get your small child out.//

They already have these for doors being ajar. But if somebody thought that protecting the life of their child wasn't worth having that same dinging noise that warns you that your door isn't fully closed as when they've left a kid in a hot car they wouldn't buy these. Their choice.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2024


Hmm, okay. Or a cat meowing or a dog barking if you're using it for that.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2024


Asked my brilliant daughter what she thought of this idea and without even thinking about it said “Parents getting home with sleeping kids in the car just want them to stay asleep while they get them out of the car and put them to bed. They don’t want a loud beeping sound to wake the kid up.”

Yup, good point. So you’d have to have a silencing button have to push while you took the kid out if their seat if they were sleeping.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 18 2024


A self-driving car should just follow you around everywhere if you've left an infant in the back seat
-- hippo, Jun 18 2024


The "Kid Asleep" button would be on the cigarette lighter power input. Can't have any batteries with this thing. When you park, push it, keeps the alarm off while you get the kid out of the car and automatically resets after a minute.

If you've pushed the button you remembered the kid's in the car, but if you get distracted after 30 seconds or so it starts beeping.

An un-manually activated time delay would defeat the entire purpose of this thing. Takes about 5 seconds to get out of a car, especially if you're distracted because you're in a rush, the exact scenario where you might forget your kid's in the car.

Could also send text messages that you have to acknowledge. Theoretically you could have ten people making sure you didn't leave the kid in the car.

Not sure I'd like that one. Beeper would probably be enough.
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 18 2024


//A self-driving car should just follow you around everywhere if you've left an infant in the back seat//

True, if you saw a car breaking through your wall into the living room you'd say "Hmm, did I forget something?"
-- doctorremulac3, Jun 18 2024



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