Look Behind You!

I changed my car last month.

I now own a BMW 3-Series.

I like to confuse other drivers by using my indicators correctly.

I was a bit confused myself though, and also somewhat perturbed by these three red blobs that appeared on the dash whenever I started it up:

There was nothing in the manual about them and red is bad - right?

But they went away after a few seconds so they can't be that bad, can they?

Then one of then went green when I was giving my son and his guitar a lift to the station.

Green is good.

A bit of Internet research then told me that these blobs represent whether or not the rear seat passengers (irrespective of whether they exist or not) have got their seatbelts clicked in.

OK, I get that - it's nice to know, if you are planning to crash, whether or not the person sat behind you is liable to be flung through your helpless body creating gruesome carnage.  Or not - green is good and red is OK if there's nobody sizeable sat there.

So when I read this Car+Driver story this week about how Hyundai will be making rear-occupant alert standard by 2022, I assumed that it was something like what I had been experiencing.

But no.

This is a system already made available by some manufacturers to alert drivers IF THEY HAVE ACCIDENTALLY LEFT A CHILD IN THE BACK OF THEIR VEHICLE. (I put it in capitals because it sounds unbelievable)

How can that even be a thing?

I can understand people deliberately leaving children in cars if they think they'll only be a short time - it is very stupid and they should feel the full force of the law if anything happens to the child (and also maybe if it doesn't)

BUT HOW CAN YOU FORGET A CHILD IS IN YOUR CAR!?

Sadly - apparently you can.  I want to be flippant and mention the Darwin Awards but it feels wrong after reading that.  I don't understand how that could happen and also how car manufacturers have to put something in place to prevent it happening again.

So, rather than try to comprehend that, here's the cute picture they used in the story: