Rear Seat Reminder, an industry-first feature designed to remind drivers to check the back seat as they exit their vehicles under certain circumstances, will be offered across many Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles by the 2018 model year.
The system monitors rear door usage to remind drivers to check their rear seats before walking away from their vehicles.
Thirty-nine children died from heatstroke this year as result of being left in vehicles or gaining access to an unattended vehicle, a 60 percent increase over last year’s figure.
Rear Seat Reminder debuted earlier this year on the all-new 2017 GMC Acadia.
The Rear Seat Reminder works by monitoring the vehicle’s rear doors. The feature is intended to activate when either rear door is opened and closed up to 10 minutes before the vehicle is started or while the vehicle is running. Once the system is activated, the vehicle is designed to sound five chimes and display a message in the driver information center that reads “Rear Seat Reminder / Look in Rear Seat” the next time the vehicle is turned off.
The feature cannot actually detect items in the back seat, so it is always important to check the rear seat prior to exiting the vehicle.
