Did anyone watch American Inventor tonight?

[Piglet]

There was a man that came up with a new idea for car seats - it was basically a womb for the car. Weird description, I know, but that is probably the best way to describe it. It was a self-encased bubble with an infant seat inside that could rotate in any direction. It would turn away from a collision, so that the baby would be cradled on impact. The man who invented it had lost his daughter in a car accident 7 years prior and was trying to save others from experiencing his sorrow. He got through to the next round and I am interested in seeing if he gets any further. They will be evaluating the plausibilty/cost/etc. in the nect round, I think.

Did anyone see it? I was wondering what people thought - is it plausible? What are the costs of engineering and testing car seats? What would stand in the way of someone that had a great new innovation for car safety?

[tjham]

Wow, I just saw this too! And I was just flipping around, I have never seen this show before. It just may work, but will take lots of testing. I'm glad they gave him a yes!

[Splash]

I came here to post about this. I wonder how BIG the bubble would be though...
I thought it was a marvelous idea and would essentially make any child RF no matter what angle the collision came from. I'd be worried about fingers getting pinched and skin getting rubbed... but I guess that's better than a serious injury in a crash.
The guy did his homework too and seemed to know about the restraints that are out there and their drawbacks.
I am totally excited to see what happens with this seat in the next round. If that thing made it through testing and wasn't ginormous (or prohibitively expensive) I would buy it.
Of course, we know Julie would buy it, so I would just wait for her review.

[Emmas Mom]

I'm glad I searched before posting about this. I'm really excited for him that he made it to the final 12. It'll be very intersting to see what he does with the $50K. Some of the finalists stories have been really inspiring. I must admit his story made me tear up.

[Oregonmother]

he is my favorite inventor too! Hope he wins.

[jeanum]

Same here, his invention is far more interesting and compelling to me than other inventions advanced to the next round such as exercise equipment prototypes and a talking doll. But I do have reservations about how his carseat invention would perform in crash tests and also how it would rotate during normal vehicle operation (turning, stopping normally, etc.) Some moms on another board posted that they thought it would easily make a child carsick. It will be interesting to see what happens.

[stonecali]

So, the car seat guy is down to the final 4. Did anyone see the crash test? The baby did a complete revolution upon impact. And, the safety tests came back positive. Obviously, it would have to be perfected and go through more rigorous testing, but the concept is interesting.

[sophdog33]

It's such an interesting concept! I really hope that even if he doesn't win, he continues with this project - I feel like it still has work to be done - like the previous poster said, I would be concerned about fingers getting pinched or say the kid is playing with a toy upon impact and the toy gets jammed in there - things to consider but I really hope this is a new carseat that we will see develop!