The Modular Kids' Car Seat

Why is it that the smaller the person, the more space is required to transport them around? Throw a young-un in the car and you also have to find room for the stroller, diaper/toy/snack bag, and whatever other accessories you've deemed essential for your bundle of joy's joy.

And then there's the car seat, perhaps the most short-sighted invention ever to achieve raving success.

Remember when the family car actually used to be a car? Today the most popular car on the road is something like the Toyota Camry, a modest sized sedan or wagon with seating for 5 adults. It's economical to own and drive, reliable, and equipped with all the safety features responsible parents look for. Good honest transportation. You could say the same thing for dozens of other cars and wagons and SUVs - perfect family vehicles, differing largely in the quality and quantity of their accoutrements to satisfy families' different tastes.

But what they have in common is less interesting than what every single one of them lacks - enough room for 3 small children in the back seat. Put an infant or toddler seat or even a booster in the back and suddenly your back seat for 3 adults has enough room for one adult and a diaper bag. Strap 2 seats (of any variety) in and your diaper bag had better be a fanny pack. My own car is a wagon the size of a Subaru Outback, with seating for 5. I've got seats in the back for my 3- and 5-year-olds and the cup holders on the seats brush against each other. I couldn't strap a goldfish in between them without feeling remorse that I'd cramped his quarters.

I did a lot of research on this, which meant that I looked it up in Google. There are no shortage of online forums where people discuss this very idea - how do I get 3 kids in car seats into the back seat of my car? Here's one of many examples:

Best vehicle for my 3 kids under 3 years old

Invariably, the feedback comes back the same - Get a minivan a SUV with a 3rd row of seats. Either way, that means get rid of the 'family' car in exchange for a family truck. One that takes up more parking lot space, has a bigger footprint on the road, guzzles more gasoline, and in general is less respectful to society than a smaller 5-person car which should actually accommodate 5 people.

Families should not have to get a new car just because they have a 3rd child, or because one of their two children have a friend who needs a ride to pre-school once in a while.

So how about this: A modular car seat system where the seats (infant, toddler, booster) are designed expressly to fit 3 across a standard-sized car. I'm no engineer but it seems to me there must be a way to safely put a child who is 12" wide at the shoulder into a space less than 18" wide. You know how airplanes have shared arm rests? Why can't car seats have a shared should bolster? Or cupholders that don't enlarge the footprint, or at least interlock with each other, or something?

My idea would be a rail system that is secured to the back seat using the car's existing restraint systems. The seats could then snap or slide onto the rail and interlock with each other in some way, based on their design. The rails would come in varying lengths based on the car (like roof rack rails and systems, though the need for variety wouldn't be nearly as complex). One option for each however would need to be a 2-wide rail, so that two car seats could go into the back and still leave room on one side for someone to sit without a car seat.

Also using this system, it would be easier (and probably less expensive) to swap out seats for different occasions, and as children grow. Snapping or sliding them on and securing them would have to be designed to be relatively easy, especially since the straps and tethers would be to the rail system and already in place.

Want to turn this into a bigger opportunity? Design center consoles with entertainment systems or toy bins or juice box holders or whatever that will fit and use the space perfectly between two seats on either end, so that the system has appeal to families with two kids as well. Need to give a friend a lift to school? Lift out the console and snap in a 3rd booster. You're done, and on the road.

This is the one idea I wish I had the time and know-how to pursue on my own. I can't, and I'd rather see someone follow through with it than never have it materialize. If I'm giving up my inventor's profit so that families don't have to needlessly upgrade to bigger, costlier, environmentally sensitivelesser trucks and vans, well, that's worth more to me than bragging rights on an idea that never goes anywhere.

Someone have at it, please.