The device has been created with a sensor to remind parents that their kids are in the back seat.
In an effort to help parents to overcome the issue of hot car deaths of children, a smart child seat has been made by Evenflo, which will provide a reminder that there is a baby in the back seat of the vehicle.
There is a sensor built into the child seat which can detect whether or not there is a baby in it.
As well intended as the smart child seat from Evenflo may be, it has managed to spark a great deal of controversy about parent responsibility. There are many media reports, blogs, and social media posts that have taken shots at the company, at Walmart (which sells the device) and at parents who think that they would need this product. They have said that if a parent is absentminded enough to forget a baby in a hot vehicle regularly enough that a reminder is necessary, the problems are deeper than what mobile technology can correct. However, there are others that feel that this simple form of gentle reminder is designed to prevent that one time, when a mistake could be made.
The idea of the smart child seat is to help responsible parents to ensure that they don’t make a fatal mistake.
There are clearly two different camps that are viewing this mobile technology very differently. One says that the problem is deeper than a reminder device and that it should be the issue itself, not the symptom that should be treated. The other says that a good parent may be interested in that safety net not because he or she thinks that the child will be forgotten in a hot car, but to make sure that in the off chance it does happen, there will be a backup reminder to stop it from being potentially deadly.
The hot weather that has been experienced by many parts of the country, and the many instances of infants and toddlers being left in hot cars in driveways and parking lots have been terrifying reminders that it takes only minutes for a warm car to become hot enough to kill a baby or a young child. What has yet to be seen is whether a mobile device like this one would actually make a difference in changing that trend.
There have already been dozens of viral videos circulated over social media that have shown that children have been deliberately left in sweltering vehicles by their parents who just wanted to “run in” to a mall or a store, not forgotten out of carelessness. It sounds as though the people who would be most likely to purchase a smart child seat such as this one may be those that are already aware of the potentially deadly choice of leaving a baby in a hot vehicle, which makes it unclear as to whether or not a reminder is actually needed.
