The First Connected Child's Car Seat Has Arrived
The world watched as new parents Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge left London’s St. Mary's Hospital for Kensington Palace with the long-awaited royal baby, but amid the oohs and aahs quite a few uh-ohs could be heard as well. “Will and Kate’s royal car seat mistake” lit up social media and the blogosphere.
Many were quick to point out that the adorable little Royal Highness Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge may not have been properly secured in his car seat. As many new parents can attest, properly installing a child’s car seat—not to mention the child—can be challenging. Now, there finally may be an app for that.
According to a press release from TOMY International, the company says it has introduced the first smartphone-synched car seat with an integrated monitoring system designed to alert parents of unsafe and potentially life-threatening situations.
TOMY International states that the patented technology in The First Years IAlert Convertible Car Seat
assists parents or caregivers via their smartphones with the recommended angle orientation when installing [the car seat] in the rear facing position. In addition, it alerts them if their child moves out of their seat while the vehicle is in motion, if their child is left unattended in the car when the car is not in motion, and constantly displays the ambient temperature in the back seat of the car.
Once the app has been installed and synched, an audio and visual alert appears on the user's smartphone when a monitored issue occurs. Alerts would appear if a toddler manages to unbuckle the car seat while the car is in motion or—a parent’s nightmare—if someone arrives at a destination and forgets the baby is sleeping in the back seat. The application is compatible with iPhone and Android devices.
The ultimate promise of connected cars is leveraging apps and smartphones to increase safety. What better use of these new technologies than safety for babies and toddlers in automobiles? U.S. News & World Report states that so far this year twenty-three children in the United States have died of heat stroke resulting from being left in cars.
And FYI: In the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provides locations of the nearest resource where certified technicians will inspect your child car seat and, in most cases free of charge, show you how to correctly install and use it. Many fire stations offer this service and will install the seat—and sometimes let a little one sit in a fire truck.
After all, every baby deserves a safe ride.
