It almost seems this is common enough that eventually cars sill have a feature to prevent heat death. I think of Tesla’s dog mode but for humans.
Caveats:
• Not saying parents have no responsibility
• Not saying auto makers have sole responsibility
• I understand the “slippery slope” argument that this will lead to parents leaving their children on cars
• This is just an extrapolation into the far future, like 100 years or so, when we have metals far stronger than steel protecting your car door and sentient robots.
Every safety feature is a slippery slope to sloppy drivers making mistakes. You can make the same arguments about disc brakes, anti-lock brakes, systems that mitigate crossing the center line or running off the road, systems that attempt to bring the car to a stop when a cyclist, pedestrian, or large animal steps in front of the car...
Volvo once had a "pedestrian air bag" that deployed on the front hood if the car detected what appeared to be a pedestrian being struck. Maybe that was a slippery slope to reenacting "Death Race 2000!"
I kid, of course. All safety systems lull people into some false sense of security. The question is not whether that happens, but whether the overall result is more or less safety. In general, we are statistically safer with these systems, even if some people become complacent.
If you listen to the police scanner in towns with casinos (or even just video poker machines in convenience stores), you'll quickly learn that people lock their kids in cars all the time so they can get in a few minutes of "gaming," which too often turns into many many hours with the child locked in the car alone. And yes, often they die.
I worry that if "dog mode" as it is becomes widespread, it will give the negligent parents an excuse and means to feed their addictions.
I'd be happier if dog mode automatically called 911 after xx minutes of a living creature being left in the car.
Trying to play devil's advocate, I thought "What about if someone ends up homeless, sleeping in their car, and dog mode calls the cops on them?" Maybe that would actually be a good thing, if we also provided them with actual housing.
Caveats:
• Not saying parents have no responsibility
• Not saying auto makers have sole responsibility
• I understand the “slippery slope” argument that this will lead to parents leaving their children on cars
• This is just an extrapolation into the far future, like 100 years or so, when we have metals far stronger than steel protecting your car door and sentient robots.