WHILE DRIVING CAN be a stress-filled activity for us adults, for babies it is often a soothing, relaxing experience. So much so that it will more often than not send a little one to sleep in no time.
For years parents have strapped their precious cargo into cars and set off on late-night drives just to get the baby to drift off.
Well, building on this worldwide parenting trick, Ford Motor Company has developed a cot that simulates car journeys in the hope that babies will fall asleep without the need to actually go out in the car.
Think how much time and fuel it will save already time-strapped parents? It may also mean parents can get a few more hours of shuteye if they don’t have to hit the road – research shows new mums and dads ”can typically expect little more than five hours sleep a night while losing the equivalent of 44 days sleep in just the first year of their child’s life.” Ouch!
Designed to work with an app on a smartphone, the cot mimics the motion, engine sound and street lighting of nocturnal please-go-to-sleep journeys.
To operate the Max Motor Dreams Cot, you hit the road and choose a route that has already sent baby to sleep. You then hit record on the app. This records the noises, lights, and motion of your car. Back at home, you place your baby in the cot and choose the recorded drive and the cot recreates the sensations. This means your baby gets a tailored experience based on a drive that has sent them to sleep in the past. Genius.
Max Motor Dreams designer Alejandro López Bravo said:
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. But 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. The Max Motor Dreams could make the everyday lives of a lot of people a little bit better.
For now, the Max Motor Dreams is a one-off pilot. But following numerous enquiries / desperate pleas, Ford is considering putting the cot into full‑scale production.
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