“Check Rear Seats for Occupants” in Ford. What’s This? How to Turn Off?

Modern Ford vehicles are filled with all kinds of safety features and some of them are really hard to understand. What's more, they are sometimes exclusively annoying and really need to be turned off. But what if your vehicle keeps commanding you to check the rear seat for occupants every time you turn off the engine?

Check rear seat for occupants message highlights

• Common reasons:faulty software
• How to fix:no solution for this but deactivating the reminder
• Possible consequences:no consequences
• Priority level:Low
• Can you drive?Yes
• DIY repair:Possible
• Repair price range:$0

How to turn off the "Check Rear Seats for Occupants" alert?

First of all, let's learn how you can turn this feature off because this is most likely the thing that you came to this page for.

So, to turn the rear-seat-occupants alert in your Ford, you should do the following:

• access the central console display in your car;
• choose "Settings" in the lower range of buttons on the screen;
• then, choose "Vehicle" to get access to the safety settings;
• here, you will have the string saying "Rear Occupant Alert"
• on the right side of this string there will be the switch;
• tap on the switch and make sure it reacts by turning it off;
• that's all, just go out of the settings and forget about this message.

Now, you will also get a message reminding you that your car has a function to alert you about checking the rear seat for passengers. Once every half a year, the message will pop up and remind you that you can turn this feature on. Unfortunately, there is no way you can turn this message off. But at least, it will only bother you once every six months, not every time you turn off the vehicle in your engine.

Also, if you, by chance, want to turn this feature back, just repeat the procedure - this setting will be waiting for you right there.

What's the initial purpose of this function?

Initially, Ford made this feature to prevent the cases when drivers forgot their kids or pets on the rear sit and went to a supermarket or to any other place. Surprisingly, this became a reason for several death cases and also serious injuries when the weather is too hot or cold. The closed car is like a freezer when it's cold and like an oven when it's hot, so being inside is not the best experience in your life.

Now, the function may work in different ways. In some cases, this is just the alert that monitors the rear doors. If the rear doors were opened within a current driving cycle, you will get notified about the possible presence of passengers or pets in the rear seat.

In newer vehicles, the system may also automatically turn on the ignition after 15 minutes when this alert pops up on the dash and you didn't react to it. To avoid this, press the "Close" button in the bottom part of the alert.

Actually, I haven't seen Ford cars starting automatically in a parking lot, so I doubt that a lot of Ford vehicles are equipped with this. Also, I hate the idea that my car may automatically start without me knowing this and burn my fuel when it's not needed. So, if I had a new Ford car, I would turn this feature off.

What's the background for this feature?

You may be wondering how many people actually forgot their kids or pets on the rear seats of their vehicles. And the answer is pretty simple - a lot.

Wikipedia says that, on average, 38 children annually die because of hyperthermia when left in the car, intentionally or unintentionally. This is the worldwide stat, not just in the US. But still, this figure is changing everything.

The same Wiki article says that about 25% of adults regularly forget about the presence of their kids in the rear seat, so they may just go out of the car and close it without looking back and leave for several hours being submerged in their own thoughts.

These statistics are really disturbing and even I, a very conservative and opposing to everything new person, start thinking that the "Check Rear Seats for Occupants" alert is not a bad thing at all. Yes, it's annoying, but if it can save the life or health of your kid or even dog, it's 100% worth it.

Also, you may be interested to know that a lot of countries have already committed to making the rear-seat-occupant alert system standard in all vehicles. This is especially important to countries with hot climates, so Israel and Italy are the first ones. But this is going to spread quickly because it costs almost nothing for car manufacturers to add this feature.

Why is this alert falsely popping up?

Almost all drivers that have seen this alert, think that there is something wrong with their cars because, in most cases, there are no occupants on the rear seat but the alert still pops up. Well, this is because your Ford doesn't have any sensors for the rear-seat occupants. It just registers the rear door opening and closing event.

You may open it to throw your laptop or just open it by mistake and the computer will register that possibly there is an occupant on the rear seat. After you turn off the engine, the car will notify you about the possible occupants so that you a look back.

Basically, Ford decided to spend about zero dollars and introduce this safety feature that's reportedly going to be required in all cars since 2025, reportedly. I hope we will see smarter alerts in the future and will not have to close this pop-up message every time we turn off the engine.

Final thoughts

Although I believe that annoying alerts and messages should all go off in settings because they disturb and annoy you regularly, the rear-seat-occupant alert is different. I know that the chance you will leave your kid or doggo in the rear seat just forgetting about them is critically minimal. But the fact that this chance exists is disturbing.

So, it's your choice whether you want or don't want to be notified about a possible kid in the rear seat of your car. But consider leaving this function on now, when you know what it means and how it works. Maybe, one day, it will save someone's life!