FORD INTRODUCES 'PARENTAL CONTROLS' TO RESTRICT TEENAGERS' SPEED AND REDUCE THE LOUDNESS OF CAR STEREO
Worried parents in the U.S. will be able to limit the speed at which their teenage children drive their car with a computer chip inside the key.
Ford Motor Company will roll out the new feature on many of its 2010 models that will restrict drivers to a top speed of 80mph.
Parents in the U.S., where most teenagers can get drivers' licences at 16, will also have the option to programme the car key to limit the stereo volume and to sound continuous six-second alerts if the driver doesn't wear a seat belt.
The new computer chip will be installed in the keys of 2010 models and can restrict the top speed of cars to 80mph
Jim Buczkowski, Ford's director of electronic and electrical systems engineering, said: 'Our message to parents is, hey, we are providing you some conditions to give your new drivers that may allow you to feel a little more comfortable in giving them the car more often.'
More than 5,000 U.S. teens die each year in car crashes. The rate of crashes, fatal and non-fatal, per mile driven for 16-year-old drivers is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The new feature, called 'MyKey', will be standard on an unspecified number of Ford models when the 2010 cars and trucks come out next summer.
The feature will spread to the entire Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lineup as models are updated, spokesman Wes Sherwood said.
Ford chose an 80mph limit even though freeway speed limits are lower in most states because it wanted to leave a margin in case of unusual situation arises, Buczkowski said. In some states, freeway speed limits are above 70 mph (112 kph), Sherwood added.
The 'MyKey' will be standard on some Ford models from next summer and can be programmed to restrict top speed, stereo volume and sound an alarm when the driver is not wearing a seat belt
'Just lopping it off at exactly 70mph was felt to be too limiting,' Buczkowski said.
The company already uses computer chips in its keys to prevent thefts. The car won't start unless it recognizes the chip in the key.
'It's making use of existing technology, and through the magic of software, we're able to build features on top of the features we already have,' Buczkowski said.
The seat belt chime will also sound for adult drivers, but stops after five minutes to avoid annoying adults who adamantly don't want to wear seat belts, Buczkowski said.
Ford said its market research shows 75 per cent of parents like the speed and audio limits, but as you might expect, 67 per cent of teens don't like them.
Danisha Williams, a 16-year-old senior at Southfield-Lathrup High School in suburban Detroit, said she's against the idea.
'I wouldn't want my parents to have that much control over how I'm driving,' she said.
'If your parents are holding your hand, you're never going to learn.'
Brittany Hawthorne, 17, another Southfield-Lathrup senior, said there may be emergency situations where she'd have to drive more than 80, possibly to accelerate to avoid a crash.
Ford's research shows that parents would be more likely to let teens use their vehicles with the system, Sherwood said, and if it gets them the car more often, the number of teens objecting drops by nearly half.
Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry that is pushing to raise the minimum driving age to 17 or 18, said: 'Research we've done has shown that speeding is a major factor in teen crashes, especially novice teen drivers.
'So I think a system that tries to correct the speeding behavior has the potential to improve safety.'
(Mail Online)
That will save a lot of young lives. I hope the old cars can be equipped with something like that too. Nobody in their right mind will give a 17 yr old a brand-new car (unless they are wealthy.) The 'kids' usually get a jaloupy the first time around - and that may be the reason there are so many crashes. The car is old.