Tesla may finally be addressing a huge child safety concern in America. The “Child Left Alone Detection” feature has been sitting in the code of Tesla models for almost a year, and is designed to save children from being left in hot cars. According to reports, Tesla has been working on this problem for several years, and its solution is, according to Teslarati, “an ultrawave sensor that would detect heartbeats instead of movement.” While many cars have backseat reminders based on sensors in the seats and seatbelts, the release notes for the update say that both the car and the Tesla app will notify the owner.
Tesla
Tesla, Inc. is an American electric vehicle manufacturer largely attributed to driving the EV revolution. Through the Model S and subsequent products, Tesla has innovated and challenged industry conventions on numerous fronts, including over-the-air updates, self-driving technology, and automotive construction methods. Tesla is considered the world’s most valuable car brand as of 2023, and the Model Y the world’s best-selling car in the same year, but the brand’s greatest achievement is arguably the Supercharger network of EV charging stations.
- Founded
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July 1, 2003
- Founder
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Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning
- Headquarters
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Austin, Texas, USA
- Owned By
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Publicly Traded
- Current CEO
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Elon Musk
“If an unattended child is detected, the vehicle will flash the exterior indicator lights, play an alert tone, and send a notification to your Tesla app. This will repeat at regular intervals until you return to your vehicle. Cabin data is processed locally and is not transmitted to Tesla. This feature is enabled by default. To disable, go to Controls > Safety > Child Left Alone Detection.”
– Tesla release notes via Not A Tesla App
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Other Automakers Are Already Leading The Way
Children being left in hot cars has become a well-known topic of safety over recent years, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 37 children under the age of 15 die each year of heat stroke as a result. While that’s a small number, it’s still a number, and doesn’t take into account the number of children that end up sick or in hospital as a result, or the many, many pets that die in hot cars.
Tesla is far from the first automaker to work on a solution to stop negligent parents from leaving their young children in cars. Alert systems have been introduced since 2020, and pretty much every brand has a system in place now – some new systems are incredibly sophisticated. Federal law in the US has been passed to mandate rear-seat alerts, but been delayed several times from coming into effect. Hyundai has been leading the charge by adding a door logic system as standard equipment on most of its new vehicles.
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We noted Tesla is using ultrasonic sensors, but Hyundai is already moving from that to radar, as it can “measure even minute movements of the chest and blood flow of passengers by passing through their clothes.” But, while Hyundai is also using app alerts with the technology on a few 2025 models, Tesla’s doing its customers a service by updating older cars. Currently, updates are rolling out in Europe for 2023 and newer Tesla Model 3 cars, but software rollouts will continue over coming months for further models and regions.
Source: Teslarati
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