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Eyes in the Back of Your Head<br />
By: BJ Killeen / Down the Road<br />
As technology becomes a larger part of vehicles,<br />
you might feel overwhelmed and not sure<br />
what actually makes sense to purchase and which<br />
ones aren’t necessary. One feature offered in a variety of new General<br />
Motors vehicles was created not only to help seniors, but also those who<br />
have trouble remembering things.<br />
As with some vehicle technologies, the ideas result from tragedy.<br />
Airbags, anti-lock brakes, rearview cameras and emergency trunk<br />
release handles all were born after the need arose.<br />
Lately, we’ve been reading about people who forget that they had<br />
put their babies or toddlers in a child seat in the second row and then<br />
they head off to work without checking the back seat. Obviously, this<br />
is an accident that can result in not only in criminal charges but also<br />
fatalities.<br />
General Motors engineers are doing their best to help prevent this<br />
from happening by introducing a great feature called “Rear Seat<br />
Reminder.” Because this is a life-saving technology, General Motors<br />
made the decision to make it a standard feature in the vehicles that<br />
offer it.<br />
So how does it work? Does it detect objects or people in the rear seat?<br />
Actually, it monitors the rear doors.<br />
If either rear door is opened and closed within 10 minutes before you<br />
start the vehicle, or if the doors are opened and closed while the vehicle<br />
is running, the feature will activate. Once you turn off the vehicle,<br />
there’s a five-chime reminder and a display message in the instrument<br />
cluster to tell you to look in the rear seat before leaving the vehicle.<br />
The rear seat reminder is active only once each time the car is turned<br />
on and off, and if you start up the car again, it will reactivate if the rear<br />
doors are opened again. In addition, the system may give a notice even<br />
if there’s nothing in the rear seat, such as a kid being dropped off at<br />
school without the car shutting off.<br />
We applaud this technology for helping us be great parents and<br />
grandparents.<br />
BJ Killeen has been an automotive journalist for over 30 years.<br />
She welcomes all questions and inquiries, and can be reached at<br />
bjkdtr@gmail.com<br />
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