[Technology is being used to create and recreate all kinds of experiences; this story from New Atlas is about how Ford has recreated the sleep-inducing experience of a car ride home for babies (much of the coverage asks about an adult version!). The original story includes a gallery of 14 images and a 1:39 minute video; the press release is available from Ford; and coverage by Engadget mentions a related product: “The Snoo smart sleeper mimics the sounds of a mother’s womb while keeping a baby from rolling over into a dangerous position. It also has built-in microphones so you can monitor you child from the next room and it can gently rock a little one to sleep.” –Matthew]
[Image: The pulsating lights simulate the passing streetlights]
Ford puts babies to sleep with car-simulating cradle
C.C. Weiss
April 7, 2017
It’s a phenomenon that many parents know well. The infant who just won’t go to sleep at night, in a warm, cozy haven of slumber, will nod off in the car as if the subject of a master hypnotist. It doesn’t matter that the engine’s rumbling, bumps and potholes rattling the chassis, horns blaring outside … baby’s fast asleep. This fact can sometimes motivate desperate 3 a.m. car laps around the block, but Ford has a better idea: a baby bed that mimics the feeling, sound and light of riding in a car.
In a nice little piece of advertising that highlights one timeless bond between car and family, Ford and partners have developed what they call the Max Motor Dreams cot. If it works as designed, many new parents might call it “godsend.”
Ford isn’t the first company to think of turning the sleep-inducing car ride into an actual baby product. Fisher Price had a similar idea with its Cruisin’ Motion Soother, and there has also been at least one device built to secure to a crib and provide car ride-like vibrations. Ford’s design is a more complete system, though, and even includes an app.
The app ensures that baby’s experience remains uniform from family car to cradle. Parents record the sound and movement of the actual family car. With this data, the Max Motor Dreams recreates the specific motion and sound, instead of just a generic sound/vibration pattern.
The mattress rocks gently to simulate the subtle, soothing movement of the car ride, while a built-in audio system plays a restrained engine soundtrack to add the right background noise. Soft lighting flows around the sides and ends, imitating the gentle glow of streetlights outside the car window.
“While a quick drive in the family car can work wonders in getting baby off to sleep, the poor old parents still have to be awake and alert at the wheel,” says Alejandro López Bravo, a designer at Espada y Santa Cruz, the Spanish creative studio that designed the Max Motor Dreams. “The Max Motor Dreams could make the everyday lives of a lot of people a little bit better.”
The Max Motor Dreams was designed to serve as part of a Ford of Spain ad campaign. Ford says that while the design was developed as a one-off pilot, it’s considering pursuing production based on the number of inquiries it’s received.
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