10-year-old Texas boy invents device to prevent death in overheated cars


Inspired by a tragedy, Bishop Curry V hopes that his new invention, the Oasis, saves the lives of kids like him.
In 2016, an estimated 39 children in the United States died of heat stroke after being left in hot cars, including one infant who lived near Curry, 10, in McKinney, Texas. This stuck with Curry, and he decided to try to come up with a solution. The Oasis is a fan that attaches to a car seat and can tell when a car is not moving and if there is a child in the seat. If there is a child buckled in and the temperature in the car reaches a dangerous level, the Oasis will begin to blow cold air and send a message to the parents. If they fail to respond, police and paramedics are called. "It would be a dream to have lots of inventions that would save many lives," Curry told NBC5.
Curry's invention has an intellectual patent, and once he gets a formal patent, he will be able to start making a prototype. Curry has raised more than $30,000 online for startup costs, and wants Oasis to be available to the public by 2018. Catherine Garcia
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Leonard and Hungry Paul: ‘beautiful, heartfelt’ television
The Week Recommends Julia Roberts narrates this ‘charming’ and ‘unexpectedly profound’ adaptation of Rónán Hession’s novel
-
Inside The Peninsula, London’s first billion-pound hotel
The Week Recommends As the capital’s super-luxury hotel scene continues to expand, the respected brand is still setting the standard
-
AI is making houses more expensive
Under the radar Homebuying is also made trickier by AI-generated internet listings
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial unease
Speed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B deal
speed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance