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Machinedesign 12881 Baby 695224394 0
Machinedesign 12881 Baby 695224394 0
Machinedesign 12881 Baby 695224394 0
Machinedesign 12881 Baby 695224394 0
Machinedesign 12881 Baby 695224394 0

Crib Puts Babies to Sleep by Simulating a Car Ride

Oct. 30, 2017
It’s not in production yet, but Max Motor Dreams will give parents the ability to take their fussy newborns out for a late-night drive without leaving the house.

Parents of newborns often struggle to get the baby to sleep through the night, typically waking up numerous times to soothe the child. In fact, a study has found that parents often get little more than five hours a sleep each night and lose the equivalent of 44 days of sleep in a child’s first year of life.

Engineers at Ford are aware of this, and a few had the time and inspiration to do something about it. They knew that many parents rely on putting the child in a car seat and taking it for a late-night drive, knowing the sound and motion of the car would soon have it fast asleep. So they developed a cot or crib, known as Max Motor Dreams, that works with a smartphone app to simulate nighttime drives.

To all appearances Max Motor Dreams looks like a regular cot, but it can use the smartphone to record the comforting movement, sounds, and even lights of a particular journey. The crib then reproduces them, creating gentle vibrations and soothing white noise. In addition, LEDs along the edge of the crib emit low-level amber light that switches on and off.

For now, the Max Motor Dreams is a one-off pilot. But following numerous enquiries, Ford is considering putting the unique cot into full‑scale production.

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