Walmart Announces Infant Car Seat Designed to Prevent Hot Car Deaths

Walmart have teamed up with Evenflo to announce a new infant car seat with technology designed to remind drivers of their backseat passengers and to stop children dying in hot cars.

In most new cars, there is an alert for when a driver or passenger isn't wearing a seat belt or if the headlights are left on. Using a similar idea, a sensor on the infant seat harness triggers a series of tones if a child is still buckled in when the ignition is switched off. This feature is meant to remind drivers who may forget their child is in the back.

On average, 38 children die a year as a result of being trapped in hot cars. In about half the cases, children are forgotten in the back seat, according to the nonprofit KidsAndCars.org. Often, a parent has forgotten to drop a child off at daycare.

The seat will retail for around $150. It has a wireless receiver that plugs into a car's on-board diagnostic port and syncs with the chest clip that goes around the baby. It does not require the use of Bluetooth, cellular or other devices, the companies said.

Research was done to make sure the sound it made didn't sound too similar to existing car sounds or popular phone ring tones, said Sarah McKinney, Walmart's director of corporate communications.

"It's the first and only crash-tested car seat that has this type of technology embedded," McKinney said. "Right now (on the market) it's more attachments or accessories or mobile apps, but there's not one that's an actual car seat that has this technology."

The car seat will be available exclusively at Walmart for one year. 

Fingers crossed stuff like this can become available all over the world soon!

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