Nissan has announced that it is expanding the availability of its new Rear Door Alert technology that reminds drivers to check the back seat when they exit the vehicle. The system is designed to help prevent parents from accidentally leaving a child in the back seat of a vehicle, especially during a hot day.

Nissan Rear Door Alert

Nissan’s Rear Door Alert system originally debuted on the Nissan Pathfinder and will be added to eight other vehicles for the 2019 model year, like the Rogue and Altima. The RDA system keeps track of when a rear door is opened and closed before and after the vehicle is in motion. The system then notifies the driver if a rear door was used prior to a trip, but was not re-opened after the trip. Once the vehicle is in park and the ignition is turned off, the system will first display a notification in the instrument panel and progresses to subtle, distinctive chirps of the horn.

“If you open a rear door and put something in the rear seat, Rear Door Alert will help you remember when you get to your destination that you may have forgotten it,” stated Marlene Mendoza, a mechanical engineer who helped create the technology. “By drawing attention back to the vehicle while the driver is walking away, the honking alerts you to recheck the back seat in addition to visual or interior audible alerts.”

General Motors offers a similar system called Rear Sear Reminder, but it only notifies the driver from inside the car. By 2022, Nissan plans to have the Rear Door Alert system standard on all its four-door trucks, sedans and SUVs.

Source: Nissan