As any new parent will attest, sometimes the only way to get the little one off to sleep is to strap the infant carrier into the back-seat off the family vehicle and go for a spin (or two) around the block. Now, Ford is making it easier for parents to do that without leaving the nursery.
The company has introduced the Max Motor Dreams, a bassinet that mimics a car ride, complete with motion, sounds and visuals. It’s like an IMAX experience for sleeping babies, we suppose.
This is one of those stories that had it been released a week earlier, could easily be dismissed as an April Fools prank but it’s apparently legit. And befitting today’s technological advances, the workings of the crib are linked to a mobile app.
Ford says research shows that first year parents can expect little more than five hours’ sleep per night, translating into roughly 44 days’ loss of sleep in the first year of their baby’s life. Right now, its simply a pilot project but the company has had numerous enquiries that has Ford considering it for mass production.
“After many years of talking to mums and dads, we know that parents of newborns are often desperate for just one good night’s sleep,” said Max Motor Dreams designer Alejandro López Bravo, of Spanish creative studio Espada y Santa Cruz. “But while a quick drive in the family car can work wonders in getting baby off to sleep, the poor parents still have to be awake and alert at the wheel. The Max Motor Dreams could make the everyday lives of a lot of people a little bit better.”
The Max Motor Dreams experience starts with a car ride, during which the mobile app records the journey, capturing the vehicle’s motion, the vehicle-engine’s noise and even the street lighting.
You then upload the app file to the crib and it plays the engine and road sounds while gently swaying the crib to help the baby drift off to sleep. Meanwhile, LEDs around the rim of the basket sequentially turn on and off to simulate a vehicle passing under street lights.