Nissan’s New Safety Feature Will Prevent Child Deaths From Hot Cars
Summer comes around and children are accidentally left in hot cars, but carmakers are coming up with solutions.
Nissan’s “rear door alert” technology could be lifesaving for a child, and it is the warning sound that is now standard equipment on 10 of its 2019 models.
“We wanted to make sure we had two levels to alert the driver,” said Elsa Foley, the program manager at Nissan.
If you had opened the rear door to put your child inside, at the end of that trip, you will first be shown a warning in the center dash that says “Check Rear Seat for All Articles.” But if you should walk away from the vehicle without checking the back seat, the driver is then alerted.
“If you forget or don’t see that message and you get out of the vehicle, if you don’t go back and open and close the rear doors, then the horn honks,” Foley said. “It’s a very distinct horn chirp that gives your attention back to the car, says ‘Hey, maybe you forgot something.'”
Twenty-two children nationwide have died from heatstroke in cars since the start of 2019, according to Consumer Reports.
The company plans to have “rear door alert” standard on all models by 2022.
