Nissan Adds Rear-Seat Reminder Tech

Nissan Motor Co. is launching its “Rear Door Alert” (RDA) technology in the 2018 Pathfinder SUV this September to help prevent drivers from inadvertently leaving a child in the back seat.

The technology will be standard on the Pathfinder and expanded to other Nissan vehicles in coming years. General Motors Co. launched a similar system last year on its GMC Acadia crossover vehicle and has since spread availability to about 20 models.

Since 1998, an average of 37 children die in the U.S. per year from being left inside a hot car. More than half the children were left behind by caregivers who forgot the children were there, according to NoHeatStroke.org.

Nissan's system detects if a rear door was opened or closed prior to a trip but wasn’t re-opened after the vehicle stopped and was turned off. If this happens, RDA initiates a series of alerts, starting with display notifications in the instrument panel and progressing to distinct car horn chirps.

Nissan employs a similar honking cue in its “Easy Fill Tire Alert.” The carmaker reasons that drawing a person’s attention back to a vehicle after they’ve left it makes them more apt to recheck the back seat than they would with a visual alert alone.

The system was developed at the company’s Farmington Hills, Mich., technical center by Elsa Foley and Marlene Mendoza. Foley is an industrial engineer and mother of two young children; Foley is a mechanical engineer and mother of three.