Events
Athena MaDe Debut at EcoMotion Week
A Life Saving System for Kids Alone in Heating-Up Cars
Israel – 21 May 2203
Athena, an effective safety system for preventing heatstroke of children inside of rapidly heating-up cars, made its first public appearance at EcoMotion Week, on May 23, in Tel-Aviv, Israel.
“The timing of Athena’s final product development and EcoMotion Week is ideal,” said Robert Brownstein, Chief Operations Officer with EVE Cabin Safety Systems, LLC. “It is a great opportunity to demonstrate Athena’s capabilities, under real-world conditions, to EcoMotion attendees,” Brownstein added.
Israel passed a law in March 2021 that mandates having a device like Athena in any vehicle carrying a child four years old or younger. However, before Athena, there was no product available that met the detection and response requirements under that law. As a result, it has not been enforced. Athena, which more than meets those detection and response requirements, could hasten that law’s enforcement.
The Product
Athena, about the size of a smoke detector, is designed to be attached to a vehicle’s ceiling, mid-way between the sides, and between front and back seats. It comes to life as soon as a door has opened, and begins to “look” for signs of a driver and any passengers, including children and pets.
So long as it detects a driver behind the wheel, it continues its vigilance, but takes no action. However, if a driver exits the vehicle, and Athena still detects a child remaining in the vehicle, it will immediately begin a first-level response, alerting the driver through flashing lights and beeping sounds. Once the driver returns, opens the door, and removes the child, or gets behind the wheel and drives off, the first-level Athena alert will halt while it continues to remain vigilant.
However, when the first-level alert began, an internal timer was set, and if the timer times out with no driver being detected and living beings still detected in the vehicle, Athena will use its built-in cellular capability to call pre-programmed phone numbers and, ultimately, an emergency phone number. As soon as Athena’s cellular unit detects a called-number’s pickup, it conveys a text and audible message describing the situation and providing a link for the vehicle’s current location based on its internal GPS interface.
“A child that perishes in a hot vehicle is the most avoidable and terrible disaster that can happen to a parent,” said Brownstein. “Athena is designed to prevent that from ever happening, again. It first alerts the driver, within seconds after a driver exits, that a child is still in the vehicle. That first warning can be confined to a local response by the driver. But, in the case where the driver does not respond, Athena will escalate the response by reaching out, effectively, to those who can respond,” Brownstein explained.
Athena on Display
At the EcoMotion Week event, EVE Cabin Safety Systems had a booth, inside, and a vehicle parked outside, in the sun, with Athena installed. Inside the vehicle, a high technology live-baby simulator provides realistic motion and breathing simulation that can be detected by Athena. When the car door is opened and closed, Athena wakes up and begins to detect the simulated baby in the vehicle. It soon after detects the absence of a driver. Then, it begins its
first-level response. When a few minutes have elapsed, it will place a call and deliver a description of the situation and a link to the vehicle’s location. EcoMotion attendees saw, first hand, how Athena can save lives.
Going Forward
EVE Cabin Safety Systems IL, located in Ashdod, is the exclusive licensee for Athena. It will be securing agreements with cellular operators, resellers and installers to insure that Athena can be easily and efficiently purchased, installed, and set up. It has already begun discussions with potential cellular, reseller and installer stakeholders.
EVE Cabin Safety System IL’s plan is to begin manufacturing and distributing these products by, or before, January 2024. At that time, all the cellular, reseller and installer stakeholders will be in place.
