Quick Facts About Rear Seat Reminders
- Automakers include rear occupant alert systems to address concerns over children and pets being left unattended in vehicles.
- These systems are designed to remind drivers to check the back seat before exiting their car.
- Most manufacturers enable rear occupant alerts by default, but drivers can usually disable the feature. However, keeping the alert active plays a critical role in preventing tragic accidents involving kids and pets left in hot cars.
In recent years, the growing number of children and pets left unattended in cars has prompted automakers to add rear occupant alert systems in vehicles.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a child dies in a hot car about every nine days. In 2024, 39 children died of heatstroke in vehicles, up 35% from the previous year. More than 1,010 children have died of heatstroke because they were left unattended in a hot car since 1998, according to data from the advocacy group NoHeatstroke.org.
Pets, too, get left in hot vehicles. The American Veterinary Medical Association reports that “every year, hundreds of pets die from heat exhaustion” because they get left in hot cars.
We’ll explain how the rear occupant alert system in vehicles can help you keep your kids and pets safe, how it works, and how to turn off the feature.
- What Is Rear Passenger Alert?
- How Does Rear Occupant Alert Work?
- Which Cars Offer Rear Seat Reminder Systems?
- Is Rear Occupant Alert Mandatory?
- How to Turn Off Rear Occupant Alert?
What Is Rear Passenger Alert?
Rear occupant alerts remind drivers to check the back seat if sensors detect something or someone there when the vehicle is shifted to park. Many manufacturers offer a type of rear seat reminder system. Due to an industrywide initiative, most new vehicles will carry a rear passenger alert system by the 2025 model year.
Rear passenger reminders can be as simple as a prompt on a car’s infotainment screen reminding the driver to check the back seat before leaving their vehicle. Or, they can be as complex as ultrasonic sensors that detect movement inside a car after the driver turns it off. In response, the car may flash the lights or sound the horn.
Why Rear Occupant Alerts Are Useful
Leaving a child or pet unattended in a vehicle is never safe. The inside of a parked car can quickly reach unsafe temperatures, even on a mild day. Consumer Reports testing shows that the interior of a vehicle can reach 105 degrees Fahrenheit — a potentially fatal temperature — after just one hour parked on a 61-degree day.
While this topic may make you think of kids left in cars by accident, we should note that, in 2020, almost 2-in-5 hot car deaths occurred when kids got into vehicles on their own without their parents’ knowledge.
Some hot car deaths can be prevented. According to the safety watchdog group Kids and Car Safety, the number of hot car deaths began declining during the last three years.
We’re not aware of studies explaining the decline. However, it comes after several years of awareness campaigns aimed at America’s drivers, so they know the danger of leaving a child or pet in a hot car.
It also comes after a new technology began to appear in cars: rear occupant reminder systems designed to remind or warn drivers that a person or animal may be in the back seat of a parked vehicle.
The systems carry names like Rear Occupant Alert, Rear Seat Reminder, Rear Door Alert, or Rear Passenger Alert.
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How Does Rear Occupant Alert Work?
Many manufacturers use audible and visual notifications on the dashboard or infotainment system. No industry standard mandates how a rear-seat occupant reminder system works, so automakers take several other approaches to protect children and pets. Ultrasonic sensors, weight sensors, radar-based systems, and camera monitors are some of the technologies used for rear occupant alert systems.
Screen Reminders
At the simplest level, some cars prompt the driver to check the back seat for passengers every time they turn off their vehicle.
Door Logic Systems
Most systems available in the newest vehicles use a door-sequencing logic. Onboard computers note when a rear door gets opened before driving. Then, if either of the back doors stays closed after the car is parked, the vehicle sounds an audible alert. Also, the vehicle flashes a reminder on the screen or in the driver’s instrument cluster, reminding the driver to check for rear-seat passengers.
Motion Detectors
A few cars use a more sophisticated system that detects movement in the rear seat. Hyundai and Kia, for instance, offer a door logic system as standard equipment on almost all of their vehicles. They also provide a more advanced system on some family-friendly vehicles, like the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride. Systems use ultrasonic sensors to detect movement in cars up to 24 hours after being parked and send alerts to the owner’s cell phone.
This approach is rare in the 2025 model year, but it will probably become more common in future years.
Future Advanced Systems
Manufacturers are increasingly filling vehicle cabins with sensors as cars advance toward automation. Driver-attention monitors are becoming common. Pointing similar sensors at the rear seats gets more cost-effective every year.
Also, automakers began researching more advanced rear-occupant detectors. Hyundai, worried that its ultrasonic sensors could miss a sleeping infant covered in heavy blankets, developed a radar-based sensor that can “measure even minute movements of the chest and blood flow of passengers by passing through their clothes.”
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Which Cars Offer Rear Seat Reminder Systems?
As recently as the 2020 model year, few cars offered a rear seat reminder system. Now, with the 2025 model year underway, it’s almost easier to list the cars that don’t.
Acura, Audi, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, Genesis, GMC, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Kia, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru, Tesla, and Toyota all offer a rear-occupant alert system on most or all of their 2025 vehicles.
Those that don’t yet offer a rear-passenger alert will do so soon.
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Is Rear Occupant Alert Mandatory?
Several trade associations represent the auto industry, and many manufacturers are members of more than one. In 2019, the two largest — the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers — committed to adding a rear-passenger alert system to every car by the 2025 model year. The two groups combined forces in 2020 as the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
Now, federal legislation requires rear passenger alert systems. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes a provision requiring automakers to install back seat alert systems in all new vehicles. The final rule was originally due in late 2023 and was to take effect for the 2025 model year, but complex rulemaking has faced repeated delays. Meanwhile, as mentioned above, most manufacturers already have rear occupant alert systems in new models.
How to Turn Off Rear Occupant Alert?
Drivers can deactivate rear occupant alert systems on most recent model-year cars. It’s usually as simple as turning off the notification in the system settings of your dashboard or infotainment center. In some cases, it’s a simple switch that indicates rear occupant alerts. Consult your car’s owner’s manual for instructions on turning the system off in your vehicle.
However, we strongly recommend keeping the alert active. These systems wouldn’t exist without a tragic reason for them. You may be better off letting it annoy you into checking the back seat often.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated since its initial publication.
