Hyundai to Offer Rear-Seat Reminder Tech

Hyundai Motor Co. says it will begin offering a rear occupant alert system next year in 2019-model vehicles in the U.S.

Designed to help prevent children from being inadvertently left behind in a vehicle, the system displays a message on the center instrument cluster that reminds drivers when they exit the vehicle. If movement in the rear seats is detected via ultrasonic sensors after the driver leaves the vehicle, the system will honk the horn, flash the lights and send an alert to the driver's smartphone.

Nissan Motor Co. and General Motors Co. have recently launched similar technologies.

Since 1998, an average 37 children die in the U.S. per year from being left inside a hot car. A child’s core temperature can increase five times faster than that of an adult, experts say. They warn that it takes only a few minutes for heat to overwhelm a child’s ability to regulate his or her internal temperature.