Mercedes-Benz carseat can tell you your baby’s mood – but that’s not all

In the latest episode of ‘what will they think of next’, Mercedes-Benz has teamed up with car seat manufacturer Britax to unveil a carseat that does – well, basically everything.

The future of carseats

Gone are the days of not being able to see your bub while driving because he’s in a rear-facing carseat – nope, now a seat can keep you up-to-date in real time, displaying a smiley face for a happy baby and a moon if he’s sleeping.

The child seat was one of the highlights of Mercedes’ Experimental Safety Vehicle, which Mercedes-Benz unveiled this week. 

All the bells and whistles

The seat is battery operated and connects to the car’s wi-fi hot spot (because of course) – but it can also be connected to the vehicle via USB-C and monitors the child’s temperature, pulse, breathing patterns and wakefulness. When the car is stationary, a live video feed is available for parents to check in on their baby on board.

But that’s not all. The seat warns parents when a child is slipping – or attempting to move out of – the belt, and can sense when an accident could happen, signalling the seatbelt to tighten. In the event of an accident, an arm is programmed to shoot out from the side of the seat against the door as a brace.

The carseat also tells you when the seat isn’t being used correctly. And if recent research is anything to go by, this could be its most important feature yet. The results of a recent survey revealed that parents are ignoring the safety guidelines around the correct use of child car restraints, and it means kids are at risk of injury or worse. So this feature could actually be quite useful. 

“It’s very expensive”

Sound too good to be true? Well, it is, sort of (sorry). Still in the prototype stage, a seat like this will set you back the price of a car, reports news.com.au. And seeing this particular seat is only fitted to a Mercedes-Benz, a purchase like this could equal the cost of two cars! Plus it’s not actually for sale, yet!

“In the moment, what you see here, it’s very expensive,” Benz engineer Hakan Ipek said. “This is always (how) things start.”

While totally out of reach for now, we’re looking forward to seeing what the future of car safety for kids will bring.