The Californian electric car pioneer Tesla has now submitted an application for approval for a special sensor. The technology could save the lives of many children in the future.
Munich - Reports from parents who forget their children in the back seat in the worst midday heat are unfortunately part of the summer. The e-car manufacturer Tesla * wants to prevent this in its vehicles * in the future - with a kind of "watch out for children on the back seat sensor".
This emerges from an application that the company from Palo Alto, California, has now submitted to the US telecommunications authority FCC , according to media reports . After that, Tesla * around its dazzling boss Elon Musk * wants to use special radar sensors in the millimeter wave range to detect whether children are sitting in the back seat.
Tesla wants to help children with a radar system
According to Tesla , the radar system offers numerous advantages over alternatives such as camera-based technologies or pure seat sensors. The radar sensor can distinguish children from objects and thus reduce the number of possible false alarms. In addition, the sensors also work when the youngest are covered, according to the application for approval at the FCC, which is comparable to the German Federal Network Agency. The company is currently building its first European plant in Grünheide near Berlin.
The Google parent company Alphabet and the automotive supplier Valeo had already submitted similar applications for approval . Many companies are also relying on technology in the development of autonomous driving.
USA: In 2018 and 2019 alone, 50 children died of heat death in the car
According to data from the US authorities, a total of 50 children died in overheated cars in 2018 and 2019 in the USA alone, around half of them because they were left in the car by adults.
In Germany , too, there are repeated reports that parents leave their children in the parked car even in the heat. A corresponding case in Lower Saxony did not hit the headlines until mid-August . The parents had their two-year-old daughter in Bückeburg in the Schauburg districtto forget. Passers-by discovered the crying girl in the car and called the police. After the incident, the parents told the police that they had brought their purchases into the apartment and left their child in the car.
The case of a soldier made headlines in Belgium last year. The 31-year-old father wanted to leave his daughter in a crèche in Brussels on the way to work, but had forgotten the six-month-old girl and parked his car in the blazing sun. When he returned that evening, the little one was dead.
There was great outrage in the social networks at the time. The girl's death had also sparked a debate about the introduction of technical solutions. * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen Digital network.
