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Car companies introduce new technologies and features into their cars every year. Many of the features that don’t make the headlines are some of the family friendly ones that can help make parents’ lives easier and children safer. This article will help give you some ideas of things to look for in your next car purchase. Whether you are a car technology nerd or just a safety conscious shopper, this list will help you know what features exist that you may want to have in your next family hauler.
Every summer there are multiple stories of children (and pets) dying after being left locked in hot cars. The nonprofit child safety organization kidsandcars.org states that 38 children on average die annually in the United States from being locked in a hot vehicle. Car companies are starting to take notice and some have added technologies that are designed to prevent these tragedies from taking place. GM, Ford, Kia and Subaru have systems that remind you upon exiting the vehicle that there may be someone left in the back seat if you have opened the rear doors before setting off.
Hyundai has recently taken a slightly more high tech approach in cars like the new Palisade SUV. Their system uses ultrasonic sensors in the headliner that can detect movement in the rear seats. If you exit the vehicle and lock the car, the horn will honk and lights flash if movement is detected. The car will also send a message to the driver’s phone to make them aware.
Vehicles that have so many rows of seats can make it hard for the driver to keep an eye on all the kids, especially the ones in the 3rd row. The Honda Odyssey now offers what they call “Cabin Watch”, which is an overhead camera that allows the driver to see all the kids by simply glancing at the infotainment screen up front. The camera even has night vision for those drives after the sun goes down.
Visibility around your vehicle is very important when you have little kids in your household. Many new cars are harder to see out of than cars of the past but luckily many offer 360 degree camera systems. These surround view systems stitch the video feed from all the cameras on the exterior of the car giving the driver a complete 360 degree view of what’s around the car. It makes it much easier to spot an object such as a child that may be lingering as you are about to drive off. This technology is offered on cars ranging from the family friendly 5 passenger Lamborghini Urus SUV to the much more affordable Nissan Rogue crossover.
One of the worst things in the summer is coming back to a burning hot car interior when out and about. Not only is it uncomfortable for the adults but strapping children in burning hot car seats is no fun either. Some car models now offer the ability to prematurely start cooling the interior of the car off by running the air conditioning while you are gone. This is common in electric vehicles like the up to 7 passenger Tesla Model S and Jaguar I-Pace crossover. You can either start the air conditioning via the mobile app on your phone or preset a departure time before you exit the vehicle and the car will be cool and ready for you when you return. This feature also works on cold days with the heat.
Many cars that aren’t electric like the Volvo XC90 have the ability to ventilate the car by activating the ac systems fans via the Volvo app with the engine off. The app also allows you to remote start the car which will start the engine and also run the actual air conditioner. Like the electric cars it will also provide heat to the interior if it’s cold outside.
The plug-in hybrid versions of many cars like the Mercedes-Benz GLE SUV and Volvo XC90 offer the ability to use the hybrids more powerful battery to run the air conditioner with the engine off like a full electric vehicle. This allows you all of the benefits of electric vehicles powerful preconditioning feature without having to remote start the car and waste gas with the car idling in a parking lot.
A very desirable feature that was originally found in minivans is having individual captains chairs instead of a large row of seats. This feature has proven to be extremely popular in SUV’s since many mothers don’t see themselves as the “minivan type”. By having captains chairs in the second row it frees up some interior space so it can be easier for kids to go back to the third row without having to always fold the heavy second row of seats down.
In SUV’s like the VW Atlas, the second row captains chairs can easily tilt forward and allow access to the third row even with a car seat installed. That ability alone can save countless headaches shuttling multiple kids of different ages around town.
The most sophisticated version of the captains chair setup can be found in the Honda Odyssey minivan. The center seat in the second row of the Odyssey can be removed and when this is done, it allows for an amazingly configurable pair of captains chairs in the second row. Honda calls this the “Magic Slide 2nd-row Seat”. The seats can slide apart side to side allowing for space between siblings or close together allowing for easy access to the third row. They can also slide forward which can let a child in a car seat be closer to the front driver and passenger for easier monitoring. Finally, like many other captains chairs they both also recline.
In 2019, many more cars are offering what popular minivans like the Honda Odyssey and SUV’s like the Toyota Highlander have had for several years. The rear seat intercom. Found on newer cars like the Hyundai Palisade, it allows the driver to communicate (yell at) passengers (kids) in the rear of the vehicle. It uses the microphone located in the front of the cabin typically used for Bluetooth calling and broadcasts through the rear speakers.
This increasingly common feature is one to look out for if your current vehicle doesn’t have it. Many parents find it to be more effective in quieting screaming kids than trying to yell all the way to the third row from the front.
This feature can be a life saver. Literally. When the car is in reverse and traveling at parking lot speeds, the car will automatically and abruptly bring itself to a full and complete stop if an object (or little human) is detected in its path. Many of the vehicles with this feature also give the car the ability to stop itself while moving forward at parking lot speeds.
While this may not be the world’s most sophisticated technology, the feature can still come in handy. The Rear audio quiet function found in family oriented cars like the Hyundai Palisade SUV give the driver the ability to easily turn the back speakers in the car off and only play audio from the front seat speakers. This can come in handy with sleeping children in the back or rear seat passengers who don’t want to listen to what the front seat passengers do. Although the sound from the front speakers isn’t totally blocked from the rear seat passengers ears, it is much less intrusive. Of course this is also able to be done in nearly every car simply by adjusting the fader controls in the audio settings. The Rear Audio Quiet Mode is much more convenient and faster to access than fumbling through audio menus.
Something that many car shoppers don’t consider when at the dealership and going on a test drive is the vehicles doors and how wide they open. Wide opening doors can be great for ingress and egress but not so great if you are in a parking lot and kids open the door damaging another car or hit the door against a wall damaging your own car. Many luxury sedan rear doors are very long like a Mercedes-Benz S-Class and are very impractical for use with children because they require a much larger space when parked next to another car or object. Traditional SUV doors can have some of the same issues with kids swinging them open.
Many parents can tell you the joys of minivan ownership when it comes to the rear sliding doors. They require a very small fraction of the space required to open when compared to a traditional hinged door. Many modern minivans like the Chrysler Pacifica have the ability to operate the doors via the fob so you don’t even have to touch the door or pull any handle. It also allows you to touch the handle with your arm to operate if your hands are full.
Since we are talking about door technology we can’t forget the Tesla Model X crossover. The rear doors don’t slide like a minivan, nor do they open like a traditional car. They have a complex motorized hinge system that opens mostly out and up. Tesla calls the design “falcon wing doors” because of the way they resemble the wings of a falcon when in operation. How can this possibly good for kids? Well, the doors are also equipped with sensors that are aware of obstacles or objects in the path of the door both to the side and above the vehicle. The door can open or bend in different ways depending on the space available. If there is not enough space to operate then the doors won’t open. You never really have to worry about kids opening doors into objects next to you (or in this case also above you) ever again.
This feature is not completely new but it is not as well known as it should be. The built in vacuum cleaner. Honda has had it in the Odyssey minivan since around 2013 and the feature has been loved so much by customers that it made into the new generation of Odyssey as well. Having a small handheld vacuum cleaner built into the car makes cleaning crumbs, dust and dirt left behind by the kids far easier than it would be otherwise. The kids may even enjoy using it to clean up their own messes!
The good news is that Honda isn’t the only car company currently offering a vacuum. The Chrysler Pacifica minivan also has a built in vacuum they call the Stow n’ Vac. It’s just as easy to use as the Honda version and also comes with various attachments like a longer hose that can allow the vacuum to reach all the corners of the interior. The accessories are conveniently stored in a cubby inside the vehicle so you don’t lose any storage space in the interior lugging them around.
For some people these features and technologies may not be must haves, and for others they may be. They are some practical features to look out for when considering a new vehicle for the family. It is always better to know some of the cool stuff that exists before you buy a car than to find out about it after the purchase and wish you knew it existed prior. Since most of these features aren’t displayed in commercials or talked about often, we thought we would highlight them and make them more well known so you can be a more informed car shopper.
Edited June, 2022: For some more up to date data on safety features and vehicle sales click HERE
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