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GM To Expand Rear Seat Reminder Technology To 20 New Vehicles

General Motors wants to help you be less forgetful, or in some extreme cases, save a life. The automaker has plans to expand its rear seat reminder system to 20 new vehicles through 2017 and 2018.

The technology first debuted on the 2017 GMC Acadia. With it, the Acadia reminds drivers to check the rear seats for any forgotten items or even passengers, namely small children or toddlers. GM points to the latest statistics regarding heatstroke as one motivator to expand the system’s availability; 39 children have died of heatstroke this year as the result of being left in a vehicle.

2017 GMC Acadia media drive 003

 

“GM’s Rear Seat Reminder feature is an initial step to use technology to help remind drivers to check the rear seat before exiting the vehicle under certain conditions,” said Jeff Boyer, vice president of GM Global Vehicle Safety. “We want to help everyone to take one simple, extra step. That’s why Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac will offer the Rear Seat Reminder on a broad range of vehicles, from small cars to full-size SUVs and everything in between.”

The system works by monitoring the vehicle’s rear doors. The system activates after either rear door is opened and closed up to 10 minutes before the vehicle is started or while it is running. The system will then sound five audible chimes and display a message across the vehicle’s information system to check the rear seats.

The system will debut on the following vehicles for the 2017 and 2018 model years:

Former GM Authority staff writer.

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Comments

  1. it scares me that we have drivers on the road that are so air brained they can’t remember their kids are in the car. lord help us

    Reply
    1. If you read the research on this though, its not always air-brained people.

      I mean it sounds bad, but when you read the cases of it happening, you see what is really going on.

      One example that really happened was the kid’s mom was sick, so the dad had him instead. The dad did the same commute he always did. The kid fell asleep, so routine takes over. In this case he received a phone call as he was getting out of the car and didn’t remember the kid was in the car because the kid is never in the car when he goes to work.

      It sounds silly until you realize you do it too. My Cadillac locks its doors automatically, so when I drove my wife’s car to work one day, I forgot to lock the doors (because I had my routine).

      I don’t think its cases where someone takes their kid to go play at discovery zone then forgets they brought their kid.

      Reply
      1. “Air brained” = lack of attentiveness. Having a routine isn’t an excuse. We’re all creatures of habit, some (many?) of us just aren’t self aware.

        Forgetting to lock your car door and forgetting your child is in the back seat are two very, very different things.

        Reply
  2. I just got a new ’17 Cruze RS as my DD. The first time it did this, I was stumped. I thought, what am I looking for? I was then told by a friend, it is for unintelligent humans that may forget their child in the car. WOW! Unbelievable. Now, I’ve heard of everything. You need your car to tell you, “Hey stupid…don’t forget your kid!!!”?

    Reply
    1. BTW, I love the new ’17 Cruze. I thought my ’13 Cruze RS was nice, but GM made a lot of improvements to the car. A very nice DD indeed!

      Reply
    2. The could call this the “Home Alone” feature, I suppose. Actually I got left at the circus when I was 7, not by my parents but by the clueless adult in charge. No serious side effects (other than that clowns creep me out, but that was already true before the circus trip). I think they were halfway home before they turned back to pick me up.

      When I first read the title of this article, I thought Cadillac was expanding the size of their rear seats. The ATS especially could use it.

      Reply
  3. these are the same people who drop their kids off at day care everyday. they must never spend much time with their kids to forget they have them in the car. there is a day care near me and I see people dropping of kids small they have to be carried in but I noticed they are driving the latest $50K SUV.

    Reply
  4. Forget rear seat reminders, how about safety for everyone in the car itself? How about standard fog lights across all models so that when you’re driving in heavy rain or snow at night and your high beams are absolutely useless, you can actually see the road! Come on GM, this is an important safety issue, not just for appearance purposes on sports packages!

    Reply
    1. Have you seen GM Fog lights? On many models they aren’t even well designed and implemented fog lights… often they are more dangerous than no fog lights as they are positioned up to blind people.

      Reply

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