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Wow, that is a tragic, terrifying story. I hope the mother can find some peace. It's good work she's doing. One thing not discussed yet: Could cars could be s

Wow, that is a tragic, terrifying story. I hope the mother can find some peace. It's good work she's doing. One thing not discussed yet: Could cars could be smarter? I wonder how hard it would be for them to detect the presence of a child still inside? That's probably really quite difficult to do, actually. :/

FiatLuxDave 8y ago
I think you are trying to solve the wrong problem. An alternative way to look at it is that the problem isn't leaving children in cars, it is that cars get too hot. It is basically a solar oven. Instead of trying to detect children, why not make it so that when the car is parked, that enough airflow occurs that the internal temperature of the car is similar to the outside temperature? Of course, this solution has two problems. One is that you want your car to be sealed against outside air in cold climates. The airflow could be gated by a temperature sensor. The other is that sufficient airflow might make theft easier. This means that the airflow must be provide through a protected location (as opposed to e.g. just opening the windows).
dragonwriter 8y ago
> Could cars could be smarter? I wonder how hard it would be for them to detect the presence of a child still inside? The passenger seat belt alarm on a car I had rcenetly would trigger considtently with a gallon bottle of milk; to detect a child in a child seat you'd need it to ignore the seat but trigger with child plus seat, which may be a little more involved but shouldn't be impractical. Alarm UX may be tricky: you ideally want to alarm when the driver exits the car with a child in the back, but to avoid alarm fatigue you probably don't want to do it when entering.
- supreme_sublime 8y ago
  It is interesting because you want basically the opposite of a seat belt alarm. If the back seat belt is buckled and the seat contains a certain range of weight (would probably get annoying if it would beep for an adult), it should beep.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > If the back seat belt is buckled and the seat contains a certain range of weight (would probably get annoying if it would beep for an adult), it should beep. Well, the alarm timing is different (you don't want it to alarm when driving, but you do want it to alarm when you are done driving), and you don't want to rely on a seatbelt (because a car seat attached with LATCH won't use the seatbelt, though car seats may also be attached with seatbelts—even with LATCH available you need this at higher weights.)
    - supreme_sublime 8y ago
      Ah, I don't have kids and have never put in a car seat, I thought they all used seatbelts. Damn my assumptions! Probably one of those problems that might be best served with a simple human solution, like the "bag in the back".
- itsmejeff 8y ago
  It's almost trivial for computer vision to recognize a child -- we already have backup safety cameras to protect children (among other things), why not a backseat cam?

FiatLuxDave 8y ago

I think you are trying to solve the wrong problem. An alternative way to look at it is that the problem isn't leaving children in cars, it is that cars get too hot. It is basically a solar oven. Instead of trying to detect children, why not make it so that when the car is parked, that enough airflow occurs that the internal temperature of the car is similar to the outside temperature? Of course, this solution has two problems. One is that you want your car to be sealed against outside air in cold climates. The airflow could be gated by a temperature sensor. The other is that sufficient airflow might make theft easier. This means that the airflow must be provide through a protected location (as opposed to e.g. just opening the windows).

dragonwriter 8y ago

> Could cars could be smarter? I wonder how hard it would be for them to detect the presence of a child still inside? The passenger seat belt alarm on a car I had rcenetly would trigger considtently with a gallon bottle of milk; to detect a child in a child seat you'd need it to ignore the seat but trigger with child plus seat, which may be a little more involved but shouldn't be impractical. Alarm UX may be tricky: you ideally want to alarm when the driver exits the car with a child in the back, but to avoid alarm fatigue you probably don't want to do it when entering.

supreme_sublime 8y ago
It is interesting because you want basically the opposite of a seat belt alarm. If the back seat belt is buckled and the seat contains a certain range of weight (would probably get annoying if it would beep for an adult), it should beep.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > If the back seat belt is buckled and the seat contains a certain range of weight (would probably get annoying if it would beep for an adult), it should beep. Well, the alarm timing is different (you don't want it to alarm when driving, but you do want it to alarm when you are done driving), and you don't want to rely on a seatbelt (because a car seat attached with LATCH won't use the seatbelt, though car seats may also be attached with seatbelts—even with LATCH available you need this at higher weights.)
  - supreme_sublime 8y ago
    Ah, I don't have kids and have never put in a car seat, I thought they all used seatbelts. Damn my assumptions! Probably one of those problems that might be best served with a simple human solution, like the "bag in the back".
itsmejeff 8y ago
It's almost trivial for computer vision to recognize a child -- we already have backup safety cameras to protect children (among other things), why not a backseat cam?