Can Someone Please Stop Hot Car Deaths?

This is a picture of Cooper Harris. Ten years ago, this month he died due to being in a hot car for multiple hours. This post isn't about the details of his tragic death. This is a request to the LinkedIn community for support in preventing this from continuing to happen multiple times every year.

We all hear about tragedies every day. And though all loss of life is tragic, some tend to stick with you longer than others. In 2018, a loved one told me about how this small, innocent child lost his life. We never talked about it up again but I knew I was going to attempt to do something about it. I never told them, I just did it.

With the awesome help of Jerry Chiang ,Bobby Corcoran and my neighbors; I set out to do just that. I have an extensive background in automotive customization and an above average knowledge of electronics from my time studying at Purdue University in the late 90's. For whatever reason I thought that saving the lives of children would be a slam dunk. In retrospect, I don't know why I thought that; but I did.

In 2023 I had the great pleasure of talking to a CTO of a major tech company. I asked them "If I had a product which had a large TAM, would it be better to develop it on my own or do it through the company?" To their credit, they were honest. Their response was "It would be very difficult to do it through a company but not impossible". This was discouraging as we all witnessed founders who scam seemingly get buckets of money dumped on them.

Long story short. I was so dedicated to finding funding for this project and nothing else, that I actually ended up living in my car (which I was going to use to build this MVP). I heard once that you can get anything done as long as you don't care who gets the credit. I don't care who gets the credit. The following is taken from a document that I prepared back in 2019. If anyone can take this and run with it, you're welcome to.

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1)??? Problem - Vehicular Hypothermia - Heat stroke resulting in deaths of pets and people (particularly children):

??????????? Background

The value of a human or pet life is something you can’t put a price on.? The potential loss of a loved one due to a preventable situation such as vehicular hypothermia would be a devastating experience to go through.? When parents forget their child or pet in a car on a hot day, death may occur due to heat stroke within a short amount of time.? Studies have shown that within 10 minutes the temperature in a vehicle raises by approximately 19 degrees Fahrenheit.? Within an hour the temperature in a vehicle can increase by roughly 50 degrees Fahrenheit.? Due to the decreased thermoregulatory ability of children and pets (heat dissipation), their bodies warm at a rate 3-5 times faster than an adult.

In 2018 there were 37 children who died due to vehicular hypothermia.? The ASPC estimates that thousands of pets die from being left in a hot vehicle annually.?

Forgetting to roll down your vehicle’s windows for a pet or forgetting your sleeping child in the back seat on a hot day is a common occurrence and can be prevented.

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2)??? Proposed Solution -

Design a hardware solution that monitors automotive interior temperature, movement (motion detection), and surface temperature of car interior. If the vehicle interior temperature begins to approach dangerous levels while occupied by people or pets, then the apparatus automatically rolls down windows, sends a text message, and calls the registered owner of the vehicle to notify them that this life saving function.? The intention is to notify the vehicle owner of the potential life-threatening situation for the car occupants, and that an action has been initiated to assist in the prevention of hypothermia/heat stroke for the occupants of their vehicle.

3)??? Design Proposal - Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

4)??? Prototype Vehicle - Proof of Concept

2008 Volkswagen GTI -

?-Example of a physically similar product.

?The functional Internal MVP (Minimal Viable Product) demonstration will be presented on a company asset. This asset is solely owned by one of the company’s founders personal vehicle. This vehicle is a 2008 Volkswagen GTI. This asset shall be voluntarily used, donated or otherwise offered as a contribution to the R&D objective/division of yet to be named "S-Corp" without penalty or liability.

?The "product" shall integrate with the OEM parts or devices already present with the vehicle without modification to the factory product. This is important because it will show the aftermarket potential as well as the attractive nature of consumer ease of use.

5)??? Market Potential (TAM)

The following image contains data that is representative of the potential retail market for this device. This image, though not representative of our actual product, falls under the same "relative" category. The data circled in red is the reported review of this product. The math here is important. Based on my personal history and experience in the consumer electronics hardware field, my calculation of C.O.G.S (cost of goods sold) is roughly 10$ USD. Even if you assume that every purchaser of this product left a review (highly unlikely but not impossible), the gross income for the life of this product would be roughly 450,000$ USD. Taking into account the C.O.G.S fiduciary liability, his product would still provide a NET income of 350,000$ USD.

Of course this is a representation of just one sales avenue. There must still be consideration for national retail outlets such as Pep Boys, AutoZone, O'Reilly Auto Parts, etc.

6)??? Research and Development - Steps to achieving MVP

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??????????? The MVP shall not possess the visually aesthetic

?????????? attributes normally associated with consumer

?????????? electronics products. The sole function of the MVP is

?????????? to demonstrate the functionality of the “theory" of a

?????????? tangible product.

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7)??? Resource Requirements (2.5 months)

Seed Capital (2019 numbers).??????????? $28,000.00

Expenses

Active space rental.???????????????????????? $-2,250.00

Salaries.????????????????????????????????????????? $-11,000.00

Accounting/ Asset tracking.??????????? $-400.00

Social Media/ Online Presence.???? $-1,200.00

Equipment.??????????????????????? ?????????????$-900.00

Utilities.????????????????????????????????????????? $-1,350.00

Telephone/ Internet.?????????????????????? $-1000.00

Business Insurance.????????????????????? $-900.00

Bad Debt/ R&D????????????????????????????? $-750.00

Supplies.??????????????????????????????????????? $-750.00

Bluetooth Membership.????????????????? $-7,500.00

Total Cost.?? ??????????????????????????????????$-28,000.00