Story at a glance
- To reduce fatalities in hot cars, Italy now requires automakers to include a feature that alerts passersby if a child is left in the vehicle.
- 52 children have died in hot cars this year in the U.S.
- Technology like sensors and programming that tracks door-opening sequences could provide life-saving reminders.
The dangers of leaving a pet or child in a car on a hot day are well known. Hot car fatalities are most often tragic accidents, but new technology could remind drivers that they may have left something, or someone, in the back seat. Now, Italy has passed a law requiring that technology to be standard in vehicles.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the interior temperature of a car parked in the hot sun can increase 20 degrees in just 10 minutes. Even if the weather feels cool, the inside of a car can reach temperatures that may cause heat stroke and death. This year, 52 children in the U.S. have died in hot cars, NBC News reports.
“It is unconscionable that we continue to allow this to happen when it could be fixed…with technology that is already available,” Amber Rollins, the director of the nonprofit KidsAndCars.org, told NBC News.
The new measure in Italy requires vehicles to include a device that will create audible and visual warning signs when a child younger than 4 years old is left in a car. The new law was strongly advocated for by a Sicilian father whose toddler died after accidentally being left in a car for five hours.
A few automakers in the U.S. offer an alert feature that reminds drivers to check the back seat once they reach their destination if they opened the back doors before starting the car. Experts warn that such an alarm would not help if a driver stops for gas during their morning commute and could be easily missed, NBC News reports.
More advanced sensors are able to sense when there’s something sitting in the back seat without relying on the sequence of opening and closing the back door. For example, one sensor, developed at the University of Waterloo and announced today, uses radar to detect a living thing in the back seat by measuring its breathing. The researchers suggest that if their sensor detects a child or animal in the car, it could unlock the car’s doors and sound an alarm so that the driver or passersby could rescue them.
“It addresses a serious, world-wide problem,” George Shaker, an engineering professor at Waterloo, said in a press release. “This system is so affordable it could become standard equipment in all vehicles.”
In the United States, automakers expect to make some sort of reminder system available in most cars by 2025. Both door sequencing-based reminders and advanced sensor-based reminders are written into bills currently being considered by Congress.
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