GMC Introduces New Feature in Acadia to Prevent Heatstroke Deaths of Children

Every summer we hear of many children who are forgotten by their parents or guardians in their rear facing seats and end up dying of heatstroke. These are not cruel or neglectful parents. In many instances, they are busy, stressed, sleep-deprived inpiduals who were multitasking and a simple slip of the mind led to the tragic deaths of the tiny tots who held the most important place in the their lives. They might park the car and run into a supermarket to buy just one thing but may end up meeting a friend and having a long conversation unaware of the effect the heat is having on their children in the car. In the UAE, there have been several reports of small children who have been left behind in their schoolbuses and have passed away due to heat and suffocation.

The interiors of a vehicle act as a greenhouse. If the external temperature is 70 degrees, in just half an hour, the temperature inside a car would be 104 degrees and it makes very little difference if the windows have been cracked open. In a country like the UAE where temperatures can climb to 122 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, this is an issue that every motorist needs to be aware of. GMC Acadia has introduced a new feature that will minimize the possibility of future tragedies like these.

The new feature in the GMC Acadia automatically monitors the car’s rear doors and senses when they have been opened and closed within 10 minutes of the vehicle being started. When the engine is turned off next time, a message is displayed that reminds the driver to check the backseat. Though the feature does not actually involve any mechanism to sense anything that is left behind in the backseat, sometimes this simple reminder can make the difference between life and death for many children.

GMC chose the Acadia as the model to debut the system as it is considered to be a family friendly vehicle that is generally used to transport a large number of people. GM has said that the company is planning to eventually add this feature in many more models.

With rear-facing seats considered to be safer in the event of a collision for tiny infants, many sleep-deprived parents are sometimes just too exhausted while juggling multiple tasks to remember about the baby in the rear seat, especially if there are no visial cues and this can have tragic consequences.

GMC’s new technology is definitely a good beginning, but eventually the installation of technology to sense objects in the rear seats should become as mandatory as seatbelts and ABS. No human is perfect and we all need reminders once in a while as we go about our daily tasks.