Eyes in the Back of Your Head

By: BJ Killian
 
As technology becomes a larger part of vehicles, you might feel overwhelmed and not sure what actually makes sense to purchase and which ones aren’t necessary. One feature offered in a variety of new General Motors vehicles was created not only to help seniors, but also those who have trouble remembering things.
 
As with some vehicle technologies, the ideas result from tragedy. Airbags, anti-lock brakes, rearview cameras and emergency trunk release handles all were born after the need arose.

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Lately, we’ve been reading about people who forget that they had put their babies or toddlers in a child seat in the second row and then they head off to work without checking the back seat.
Obviously, this is an accident that can result in not only in criminal charges but also fatalities. 

General Motors engineers are doing their best to help prevent this from happening by introducing a great feature called “Rear Seat Reminder.” Because this is a life-saving technology, General Motors made the decision to make it a standard feature in the vehicles that offer it.
 
So how does it work? Does it detect objects or people in the rear seat? Actually, it monitors the rear doors.
 
If either rear door is opened and closed within 10 minutes before you start the vehicle, or if the doors are opened and closed while the vehicle is running, the feature will activate. Once you turn off the vehicle, there’s a five-chime reminder and a display message in the instrument cluster to tell you to look in the rear seat before leaving the vehicle.
 
The rear seat reminder is active only once each time the car is turned on and off, and if you start up the car again, it will reactivate if the rear doors are opened again. In addition, the system may give a notice even if there’s nothing in the rear seat, such as a kid being dropped off at school without the car shutting off. 
 
We applaud this technology for helping us be great parents and grandparents.