Back-Seat Warning Systems Proliferate
Standard installations increase as pledged deadline nears intended to prevent children from being left in hot cars.
Warning systems include motion-sensing detectors and those that signal after a vehicle is turned off and the rear seat is still occupied.
Pexels/Gustavo Fring
Rear seat reminder systems are much more common after automakers pledged five years ago to install them in all new vehicles by 2025, according to an industry trade group.
The audible and visual systems are designed to prevent children from being left in hot vehicles.
The signals are now in 263 models, up 22% year-over-year, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents international automakers that build and sell in the U.S. That’s five times the number of equipped models when the pledge was signed in 2019.
Last year, the alliance pointed out, 29 children died from heatstroke in the U.S. after being left in vehicles, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. It said children’s body temperature increased up to five times faster than adults’.
Warning systems signal after a vehicle is turned off and the rear seat is still occupied, and motion-sensing detectors.
“This is outstanding and impactful leadership from the auto industry that we know will prevent preventable tragedies,” said alliance President and CEO John Bozzella in a press release. “We’re closer than ever to achieving a major safety goal: universal rear-seat reminder systems.”
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