Baby incubators made from Toyota 4Runner, Aunty Entity would be proud

Developing nations are often the recipients of used, donated baby incubators, as new ones cost about $40,000 each. Often lacking either the technicians or the parts to fix them, however, most of the incubators don't actually work. Enter Jonathan Rosen of Boston University's School of Management, who's ingeniously devised an incubator out of the very abundant Toyota 4Runner. The device is cobbled together using headlights as the heating source, the filters for air purification and the door alarm for emergency notification. The resulting incubator costs about $1,000 to make and can be repaired by auto mechanics, which is obviously good news for hospitals in need. The bad news? Dr. McDreamy's in the garage, "fixing" your car.

[AnyKey @ Dec 17th 2008 2:37PM]

Brilliant!
This guy should get a medal or something.

[Shinigami @ Dec 17th 2008 6:26PM]

How do you expect people, who live for $1 a day to pay $1,000 for this incubator thing?...
Donating some smart technicians would do much more to developing countries, IMO.
Or, at the very least, start uploading very detailed instructions on how to build these things and how to repair them if anything happens and how to find what actually broke down.

Jonathan Rosen's idea is brilliant. Its just me having little doubts it will be of much use...

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 17th 2008 6:58PM]

Because, Shinigami, as people privileged enough to not have to live on $1 a day, WE should donate the $1000 needed to give those newborns in poor parts of this world a chance.

[auricom @ Dec 18th 2008 5:53AM]

@shinigami:

The HOSPITALS in the developing nations buy the incubator, not the $1-a-day individuals. I don't see a need for families to each own one in their homes.

[Zinger314 @ Dec 17th 2008 2:40PM]

So this is how Little Lamplight got overpopulated with little brats.

[Shan @ Dec 17th 2008 2:43PM]

Now I know what to do with my 4Runner when it dies! Nice!

[fieldcar @ Dec 17th 2008 2:41PM]

McDreamy? Ugh, I hate teeny bopper bull-shh..pit.

[Boarderwoot @ Dec 17th 2008 2:46PM]

Alright! Now all the car dealers have incentives, donate your non selling cars and get a tax write off saving them money they can put towards research eliminating the need for an auto bailout. Two birds, one stone.

[Eddie @ Dec 17th 2008 2:50PM]

Oblivion modding had gone too far...

[spam_free @ Dec 17th 2008 2:52PM]

Where did that background picture come from? Looks a bit familiar (like my basement).

[Abuzar Baloach @ Dec 17th 2008 3:18PM]

It's from Hellgate: London, I think.

[LauraJune @ Dec 17th 2008 5:00PM]

Yes!

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 17th 2008 6:59PM]

That's an awesome basement you've got there.

[John @ Dec 17th 2008 3:00PM]

Why not make it out of an EZ Bake oven? Then a 5 year old could repair.

[Trial @ Dec 17th 2008 3:28PM]

We're trying to help babies in third world countries survive, not turn them into delicious, easy to bake snacks.

As cool as that would be.

[John @ Dec 17th 2008 3:36PM]

@ Trial "We're trying to help babies in third world countries survive, not turn them into delicious, easy to bake snacks. "

Doesn't this go against evolution theory? Not that I believe 3rd world babies should become part of the food chain.

[Andir3.0 @ Dec 17th 2008 5:16PM]

Evolutionary theory doesn't suggest that the strongest one kills the weakest... just that the strongest one will survive where the weakest won't. Also, the strongest is usually the one exposed to a moderate amount of hardship which then develops into immunities or instinct in later generations. In effect, the third world person would likely endure hardship better than the "first world" counterpart who's ancestry was pampered, accepted for their flaws and carried those genes on to their offspring.

[Paul Hildebrandt @ Dec 17th 2008 5:29PM]

easy to bake snacks are people!!!!!!!

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 18th 2008 6:50AM]

Where's iEye? Oh he must have gone Darwinian...

[ILoveApple @ Dec 17th 2008 3:02PM]

God damn! Engadget! That's atleast 3 photoshop jobs that have made me cringe today. Laura, you're guilty of two of them.

[andres @ Dec 17th 2008 4:01PM]

no no, its over 9000 hours in msPaint.

[Messymeese @ Dec 17th 2008 7:34PM]

Or two minutes in Gimpshop..... All you have to do is download the gimp for free, grab that background image, which was already created, crop out the incubator with a manual-select tool, and drag the incubator onto the background image..... Vwaaallllaaa.

[Messymeese @ Dec 17th 2008 7:36PM]

Oh, and don't forget making the glass slightly transparent.....

[dom.rout @ Dec 18th 2008 5:24AM]

You ruined a joke by advertising free software. I hope you're happy.

[Fred @ Dec 17th 2008 3:06PM]

This is just what we need! Now the automakers can ruin the medical industry! Wasn't it screwed up enough already? The new Ford Flex it's a Scion rip-off and a dialysis machine!

[oneMadRssn @ Dec 17th 2008 3:12PM]

what do you mean? i like the way the ford flex looks. scion is not and has never been original with their designs, so how is the ford a rip-off. ford has been making mid/large-sized 4-door hatchbacks (recently renamed crossovers) for years before scion came into the picture.

don't get me wrong, i would not buy a ford today. but the flex looks pretty sweet.

[Game_playa @ Dec 17th 2008 3:22PM]

What about the box thing

[SloMoe @ Dec 17th 2008 3:44PM]

@oneMadRssn
The Ford Flex looks like a Scion to me, and last time I checked the Flex came out AFTER the Scion Xb

[Chase @ Dec 17th 2008 3:10PM]

is that background from resistance 2 in the thames river level?

[simblor @ Dec 17th 2008 3:12PM]

So um, who run bartertown?

[Jason @ Dec 17th 2008 3:41PM]

This is exactly the sort of thing that the parts manufacturers and the like need to consider as the auto industry is crumbling. There needs to be a lot more Innovation like this.

Great!

[Wolfticket @ Dec 17th 2008 3:44PM]

You mean a Hilux?
Does this mean the baby will survive being placed on a high-rise building that is demolished winning James May £20?

[ran @ Dec 17th 2008 3:55PM]

So nobody factored in the fact that the 4Runner costs more than $1000 and the cost of importing on to many third world countries would be too great an expense?

[npChaos @ Dec 17th 2008 4:44PM]

Logic fail...

That's why you build it here first out of the parts, not send them the whole thing...

[blaze @ Dec 17th 2008 10:16PM]

it clearly says in the article that you don't need a whole car to make it, just a few part. Still even if they don't say, think about how much smaller the incubator is compare to the car...
And so since a few part s smaller than a whole car, the cost of importing would be less

[JustAGuy @ Dec 17th 2008 5:36PM]

A LOT of you are missing the point. The 4Runner, better known as a Hilux or Hilux Surf in the world outside North America is EVERYWHERE. There are old Hiluxes EVERYWHERE, and most probably don't work any more. Instead of a shell of a 4x4 rotting on an African street, turn it into a functioning incubator is the point. BUILD IT THERE!!!

[alexj33 @ Dec 17th 2008 5:38PM]

So this is how the Matrix begins...

[Adrian @ Dec 18th 2008 3:07AM]

I've owned 2 80s Toyota pickups, a 91 4runner, and a 96 Tacoma. Do the seatbelts still hang out the side of the door on this incubator?

[Kartik @ Dec 17th 2008 9:34PM]

A $25 incubator for developing countries was developed at Stanford as part of a course on design for extreme affordability. The developers of this product founded a non-profit organization called Embrace to promote it. More details at www.embraceglobal.org.

[shortshytf1 @ Dec 18th 2008 1:25AM]

woooo BU!! If our management students can create this, imagine what our engineers do.....

[Mook @ Dec 18th 2008 6:16AM]

Ive havent been to London for a while, but it looks like the recession is hitting it hard looking at the picture. Chin up old chap!

[Ryan @ Dec 18th 2008 3:23PM]

Isn't that St. Paul's Cathedral? Why? Engadget, you can be so irrelevant sometimes.

[NoAndThen @ Dec 24th 2008 12:39PM]

@ Laura June: Please don't ever, ever, ever, mention 'Dr. McDreamy' EVER again. This is engadget, not a shitty overdramatic fake hospital show.

Seriously?