The ability of parents to nag their teenage children about their driving habits is about to be electronically enhanced. Ford Motor Company announced Monday that beginning in 2010, purchasers of the Ford Focus Coupe will be offered a free electronics package called “MyKey,” which will allow parents to program electronic settings for various car features.
For instance, parents can set a top speed for the vehicle, or set a maximum audio volume for the sound system. The seat-belt system can be set to mute the audio system altogether and beep continuously until the belt is buckled. Additional chimes can be set to go off when the car crosses a certain speed threshold, or to provide additional warning that the car is low on gas.
The reaction of teens to additional electronic supervision is predictable, but Ford clearly believes that parents will welcome assistance in improving teen-driving habits.
“We are turning up the annoyance factor a little bit for teens,” conceded Susan Cischke, Ford’s group vice president of sustainability, environment and safety engineering. However, she added, when the suggestion was made to teen focus groups that the new features might increase their access to the family car, their concerns diminished rapidly.
Teen-Driving Fatalities Slowly Declining
For parents, the overwhelming selling point is child safety. Although teen-driving fatalities have declined by nearly a third, from a high of roughly 4,500 deaths in 1988 to just over 3,000 last year, most parents still worry when their children get behind the wheel.
“Ford not only offers industry-leading crash protection and crash avoidance systems, we also are committed to developing new technologies such as MyKey that encourage safer driving behavior,” Cischke said. “MyKey can help promote safer driving, particularly among teens, by encouraging seat-belt use, limiting speed and reducing distractions.”
Unlike some other automotive technology aimed at teen drivers, the MyKey program…