With the tragic death of a baby in Florida earlier this month renewing concern over young children being left in hot cars, a new product aims to help parents keep their kids safe.
The Evenflo Embrace DLX Infant Car Seat with SensorSafe technology comes equipped with a sensor that sounds an alarm after the ignition is turned off to remind parents that there is a baby in the back seat. The seat comes with a receiver that plugs into the data port into the on-board diagnostic port that mechanics use to check your car's system and links to the sensor on a clip that goes across the baby's chest in the seat using Wifi.
Once the car starts moving, an electronic link is established with the sensor on the baby's chest, so that once the car stops and is turned off, an alert sounds twice that is designed to sound different than any car noise or cell phone ring.
Jason Tanz, an editor-at-large at Wired magazine, joined Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Thursday to test the new technology in a van on Rockefeller Plaza with a real baby, 7-month-old Ava. The product is currently on sale on Walmart's website for about $150 and is expected to be in stores next month.
"It seems impossible that you would forget that your baby is in the car, but you're exhausted, the seat's facing the other way, you're sort of going by muscle memory, and you can forget the baby is in the car,'' Tanz said. "So this is a reminder using Wi-Fi, using a sensor to keep your baby safe."
In addition, parents can follow these seven tips to prevent hot car deaths.