Hot Car Bill: Good Sense or Absurd?

[catherine]

Talking about absurdity (reading IL's thread on The Beguiled) what do you think about this bill?

http://www.nhregister.com/health/201...th-of-children

This seems crazy to me. There have been a few very tragic instances of kids being left in cars, but is it enough of a safety concern to mandate that all car manufacturers build in alerts? We have bells for "put your seatbelt on" and dings for "your lights are on" and beeps for "you left the key in the ignition." Do we really need another buzzer for "Excuse me, did you forget something? Like your kid??"

What do you think?

[iris lilies]

Talking about absurdity (reading IL's thread on The Beguiled) what do you think about this bill?

http://www.nhregister.com/health/201...th-of-children

This seems crazy to me. There have been a few very tragic instances of kids being left in cars, but is it enough of a safety concern to mandate that all car manufacturers build in alerts? We have bells for "put your seatbelt on" and dings for "your lights are on" and beeps for "you left the key in the ignition." Do we really need another buzzer for "Excuse me, did you forget something? Like your kid??"

What do you think?

see the PEOPLE WILL DIE!!! video. That sums up my opinion.

[bae]

I just bought a new car.

It is festooned with clearly-mandated safety features that add cost and complexity, and likely reduce reliability. And some of them are so annoying that they may *reduce* safety - the backup camera, while handy, is absurdly bright at night, wiping out my night vision and making it difficult to use my actual eyes to backup...

I wonder how many people are going to crash their cars while poking at the user interface for all these "features"?

[catherine]

I wonder how many people are going to crash their cars while poking at the user interface for all these "features"?

I've almost gotten into an accident pressing the "I Agree Never to Press These Buttons While Driving" button.

IL: Just saw the PEOPLE WILL DIE! video--hilarious.

[Yppej]

It is all a plot to let driverless vehicles take over. First we don't back up, later we don't drive forwards. And the difficulty employers have attracting CDL drivers will be eliminated. Robots will drive with no DOT limits on hours and no overtime.

[jp1]

At 35ish deaths per year and 17,500,000 new cars sold annually (that's the 2015 number, the first I found on google) that works out to 1 in 500,000 cars involved in a forgotten child death scenario. Figuring an average of $100 per car (a completely random guess on my part) to add a sensor/beeper that works out to spending $50,000,000 per life saved. That doesn't seem to be a particularly productive use of money.

[bae]

At 35ish deaths per year and 17,500,000 new cars sold annually (that's the 2015 number, the first I found on google) that works out to 1 in 500,000 cars involved in a forgotten child death scenario. Figuring an average of $100 per car (a completely random guess on my part) to add a sensor/beeper that works out to spending $50,000,000 per life saved. That doesn't seem to be a particularly productive use of money.

"But if it saves only one life!!!!", or so they always tell me.

[JaneV2.0]

I spent some time in a hot car last summer, while my SO ran some errands. I foolishly neglected to have him leave the windows down. It was probably between 75 and 80 degrees. After five minutes, I was pretty desperately TOO HOT, and opened the door. Which I could do, because I'm an adult human, not a tiny child or a pet. So anything auto manufacturers can do to prevent helpless beings from being cooked to death from the inside out is A-OK with me.

[bae]

I will confess to having made forcible entry into vehicles to relieve heat stress on dogs (and in one case a goat) that idiots left inside. Handy always having a carbide glass breaker on my person. All part of being Batman I suppose.

[JaneV2.0]

I believe Oregon just passed a bill stating that citizens who break a car window to save a child, animal, or any suffering individual from the heat will not be held liable. Of course if the person or animal is lying down, they may go unnoticed.