Ford develops ‘smart cot’ that simulates car rides to drive babies to sleep faster

FORGET driving around the block. One car maker has developed a ‘smart cot’ that promises to drive babies to sleep faster without leaving home.

Ford has created a smart cot, named Max Motor Dreams, to simulate a car ride and help babies fall asleep.

CAN’T get the baby to sleep? Forget swaying, soothing, and driving around the block.

Car marker Ford has developed a smart cot that simulates the motion, sound, and lighting of a regular car ride to provide relief to infants and new parents alike.

The Max Motor Dreams, developed in Spain, looks like a stylish, rectangular cot for infants, but hides lighting around its frame, and a motor in its base.

Ford’s Max Motor Dreams cot includes lights, gentle motion, and sound from a baby’s regular car ride.

The smart cot connects to a smartphone app that records the sounds and motion from the baby’s favourite trip, whether around the block or just back from grandma’s house, and replicates the experience at home.

Strip lighting turns on and off to simulate passing cars.

Designer Alejandro Lopez Bravo said the smart cot was designed to make families lives “a little bit better” after identifying that car rides could lull stubborn babies to sleep.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

But the Max Motor Dreams is not for sale yet.

Ford developed the cot as a one-off prototype, but a spokesman said it was considering “full-scale production” after being inundated with inquiries.