They say that technologies are making us stupid, and now we know what they’re talking about. There is a new trend going on among car makers as they are trying to make the Rear Door Alert system a thing. Nissan has now upped the game announcing that they will offer this feature as standard on all four-door models by 2022. 

The Rear Door Alert is a useful feature to have if you are kind of, well, thick. It sounds the horn and flashes messages on the center instrument panel is you get out of the car and leave something in the backseats. Of course, we have all done that, but a few seconds later remembered and went back to get the item we had forgotten. So this fancy and much-publicized feature is designed to potentially save 20 seconds for you. Thank you, Nissan.

That said, we suppose Nissan’s Rear Door Alert is a good feature for the Americans to have, because we often read in the news they sometimes forget their kids in the backseat. What such technologies do to you, though, is to further dull a mind that has already been sanded smooth by the smartphones and Netflix and Instagram. If you rely on your own brain, you may get things wrong a few times, but at least you exercise it, keep it in workable order.

“I’m proud to see Nissan lead the way by making Rear Door Alert standard on more models,” said Marlene Mendoza, a mechanical engineer who helped create the technology. “What started as a chat with my colleague, Elsa Foley, is now innovative technology being adopted in more Nissan models. It is a testament to Nissan’s culture.”