What Is a Rear-Seat Reminder?
This safety tech, intended to help prevent kids being left behind in a vehicle, will be more widespread in 2025.
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Owners of late-model cars, trucks, and SUVs may have noticed digital messages, chimes, or other warnings reminding them to check for rear-seat passengers when exiting their vehicle. These rear-seat-reminder systems, designed to prevent the deaths of kids or animals accidentally left in a hot vehicle, are a safety feature set to be included on new automobiles sold in the United States by the 2025 model year.
From Helpful Reminder to Mandated Safety Feature
Nearly 1,000 children left in vehicles have died due to heatstroke since 1990, according to data from the child-safety advocate group Kids and Car Safety.
In 2016 and 2017, General Motors and Nissan introduced systems that gave visual and audible reminders to drivers to check the rear seats when the ignition was turned off and the driver's door was opened. Other carmakers — including BMW, Honda, Infiniti, Jeep, Lexus, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Ram, and Subaru — followed, offering similar reminder systems in their vehicles.
In 2019, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers, trade associations to which most major manufacturers belong, announced plans to install rear-seat reminders in all new vehicles as standard equipment by 2025.
Additionally, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 included a section instructing the U.S. Department of Transportation to ensure automakers include electronic reminders of rear-seat occupants.
Opening Doors Will Set Off the Warnings
Rear-seat reminders often chime when the vehicle is turned off at the end of a trip and the driver exits the car. Currently, many systems are activated by a rear door being opened prior to departure.
When the vehicle is shut off, a combination of prominent audible and visual alerts remind the driver to check the rear seat for people or pets. Some vehicles even honk their horns or flash their headlights if the driver tries to lock the doors without again opening the rear door.
Future Systems May Detect All Passengers
Such systems are relatively rudimentary and can be disabled by drivers who do not usually carry passengers in their rear seats. But the next generation of occupant-alert systems likely will be able to scan the entire cabin to determine human (or animal) occupancy, using a combination of motion detectors, seat-pressure monitors, and radar sensors to warn of living, breathing passengers left in the cabin.
Motion-detection technology is already on the market. Some Hyundai and Kia models will honk their horns and flash their lights if they detect a person or pet left inside after the vehicle is locked. If the owner subscribes to the brands' connected-services systems, they can receive a notification on their phone.
Volvo also includes a radar-based system in some vehicles that will alert a driver and prevent doors from being locked if there is a rear-seat occupant left behind. Tech companies Bosch, Infineon Technologies, and Texas Instruments are working on radar-based applications for other carmakers.
Written by humans.
Edited by humans.
Andy StonehouseAndy Stonehouse literally fell into the world of auto writing while working as a ski-town journalist, and has not looked back since. A childhood spent dealing with the eccentricities of a 1976 MG Midget has made any subsequent auto experience a more safe and reliable drive. He has been blessed with nearby mountain trails and snowy roads in Colorado to do TV-adventure-styled test drives on a weekly basis.
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