Teens Will Hate Driving with Ford's MyKey
For parents, a gift has finally come down from the heavens, answering pleas of mercy and desperate prayers nationwide. What’s the name of this sacred gift? Let it be known as... MyKey.
Believe it or not, the day will finally come when parents can not only restrict the insane levels of music blaring from the car radio, but make sure that their youthful driver keeps the throttle revved under 80 mph or lower. This device, a key embedded with a special computer chip, will also activate an annoying reminder if passengers don’t buckle up. Unfortunately, this holy grail of parental control won’t be available until late next summer via Ford Motor Co.’s 2010 line of vehicles. Still, it’s something to look forward to... unless you’re a teenage driver, of course.
"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," said Jim Buczkowski, Ford’s director of electronic and electrical systems engineering.
Currently the company already uses anti-theft technology to prevent its line of automobiles from starting without recognizing the inserted key; MyKey will use this technology as a foundation to build upon "through the magic of software," claims Buczkowski.
He also revealed that the company felt that capping the speed limit to 70 mph was too limiting even though that is the existing freeway speed limit in most states. Setting the limit to 80 mph gives way to margins of error like avoiding accidents, disorderly conduct involving teenage goofiness or developing a severe case of lead foot. According to an article over on Yahoo (story), parents will not only be able to set the 80 mph cap, but activate an alarm that will alert the driver at 45, 55 or 65 mph.
Sounds like a devious plan to annoy teenage drivers? You bet it is, and the seat belt alarm can be just as aggravating, chiming for six seconds every minute. The alarm shuts off after five minutes however to prevent evoking a serious case of road rage.
Ford Motor co. will begin using MyKey in the 2010 Ford Focus, then move on to the entire Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury lineup. Other vehicle manufacturers may begin to develop similar technology for their cars, but until then, consumers are locked in to purchasing Ford products if they want to have this level of control over teen driving.
The big question is this: how will the teens react to MyKey? Naturally, they will rebel against it. "I’m not opposed to the speed limit aspect," said Michael Parrish, freshman at Hoggard High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. "That’s how one of my friends died... speeding while drunk driving. He crashed and was decapitated. But if you plan on restricting my radio levels, I’m just going to plug in my earphones and listen to my MP3 player instead."
Another student wasn’t quite so optimistic. "I wouldn’t want my parents to have that much control over how I’m driving," 16-year-old Danisha Williams of Detroit, Michigan told Yahoo. "If your parents are holding your hand, you’re never going to learn."
Her comment is not surprising. Ford conducted a market research and discovered that 75-percent of the parents questioned loved the speed limitations, whereas 67-percent of the teens hated the idea. Still, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 5,000 teenagers die each year due to car crashes in the United States alone. Perhaps this MyKey technology will reduce that number... if they’re driving a Ford, that is. Then again, perhaps the threat of the MyKey technology will turn teenagers away from driving altogether, thus locking parents into the never-ending task of chauffeuring their kids everywhere.
Maybe MyKey isn’t a blessing, but a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
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A little lighter on the religious vibe in the intro next time, Kevin. This is news, not opinion.
I don't think this will reduce accidents at all. Most cars I get into already ring if the driver's belt isn't buckled. Some cars have a speed cap built into the ECU that force them to stop accelerating at a certain speed.
They say 5k teens die from car crashes each year, but they don't say how many of the 5k die because of reasons that this key can prevent. My guess is it's not that high. This key can't prevent a stupid decision or a silly stunt.
I'm all for the speaker thing, though. I get into my friends cars all the time, and they immediately turn up the radio all the way. They think it's cool, but working for a sound productions company teaches you better. The sound that comes out of a maxed out radio (most, at least) is nothing but garble. It gets even better when they max out the bass, and you hear this horrid braahhhmm every time the speaker beats. It just sounds terrible, I don't know why people do it.
MyKey is great tech. I can't see a situation where it would not be useful. But, what would be even better situation to help your teen learn to drive responsibly is to make him/her pay for his/her vehicle with their own money earned through a real part time job and summer jobs. Also, to insure their auto under their own name, and pay for all repairs necessary to keep their vehicle on the road. Perhaps then the teen may learn the value of money, the responsibility in having a job and monthly bill to pay, and finally the reward of knowing that with hard work he/her can achieve and succeed. Who knows, maybe he/she will also learn a desirable skill: how to troubleshoot and repair your automobile. I know I did.
Good heavens NO! Just make it harder for teenagers - indeed, harder for everyone - to attain a license. I hate to see more reinforcement of the message that speed kills.
This is a last-ditch effort for Ford to sell some cars. Safety doesn't start with the car, safety starts with good education. And 80 mph is faster than highway speed anyway, more than enough to kill someone if there is an accident.
Im sure we will figure out a hack for this nonsense.
Honestly I see nothing wrong with this. Will to a point. Speed limit well its not gonna do much anyways. Doing 80 in a 45..well you get the point. The buckle alarm absolutely is a good thing. Sorry, but until they turn 18 it is up to the parents wither they want to go this route or not. The music.. Eh again same with the speed limit really isn't gonna do much with all the music devices around. They just won't be able to go blaring down the streets.
Also some of these state driving courses are just a straight up joke. I'm orginaly from IN then moved to GA and how to get my driving license renewed, and since I lost it I also had to take both writing, and driving. The test was a joke compared to IN, and the driving was in a course. Ya, that can tell a whole lot about how a person is gonna drive with other traffic.. /sarcasm off
Good tech, I admit. BUT, watch this thing get hacked in a few weeks after release. Some teens aren't stupid!
LOL... Im 27 and rarely hit EIGHTY miles an hour. Jesus Christ. I love to speed too, just dont have any damn reason to go that fast. This car wouldn't bother me one bit! Mom, can I borrow your car? Atleast I know I wont damage the engine! Kids are plain and simply ridiculous. They have no respect for their parents or the concern they display. You can blame the parents for falling prey to the stupid rules enforced by law. If my kid gave me a nasty attitude because I wouldn't give him my key to drive the car fast then 80mph, I would consider kicking his ass out or sending him to a military school.
i heard that on radio when i was driving to school :] guess what? ford sucks donkey balls. i would never drive ford, i have 2004 vw jetta with couple tweaks
and yes i drive faster so i dont get late to school kekekekekeke
I give it a week after it comes out before someone figures out a way to defeat it. Teens today aren't stupid, they're just dumb (unwise).
I don't think it will lock parents into chauffeuring their kids around. If the kids won't accept that car, then they can't get to where they want to go. I'm sure if given the choice of a car that can't go 80 and walking, then they'd pick the car.
WOW! Ford is certainly on the right track to help their sales. Teach the new generations to hate their cars even before they're old enough to buy! Great thinking. Keep those roads safe and your sales down. If only they put that much effort into making their cars a little more reliable and a little more energy efficient.
hmm but what if your on the highway and you get pinned in by semi's or other roadsters and you can't speed up to avoid a wreak due to the limit and then you crash. i forsee many problems
you have to be completely blind not to see what they are doing here.....!!!
1st... they are completely teaching the teen the wrong lesson here!!...the lesson that you are "provided a car by your parents", not getting off your ass and learning responsibility and earning your own car. along side this, they are teaching the Teen that they are being maticulously controlled while they are driving... wow, so its okay to take a humans freedoms because otherwise they may be more likely to crash daddy's cr***y ford focus anyway....
2nd... wake the hell up!!! they implement parents monitoring their childrens driving... okay.... the next step will be the government monitoring the parents driving. so wake up and refuse this BS technology, coz one day your a$$ is the one getting fried.
PEACE!
i hit 90 to 100mph on fwy, average speed is 85mph. Like someone said there are ways to get around it most likely.
still single, but when i have kids i will like that kind of control. although, i probably like the chimes disabled, it can be annoying.
audio volume control is welcome, avoids noise in neighborhood and driver have more focus on driving.
lastly, i think the speed cap is senseless.
a safety a feature should be a engine rev limiter than can be adjusted. safer and also VERY ECONOMIC. if my son/daughter doesnt like it, then don't drive my car.
So ... is author Kevin Parrish in any way related to friend of the headless drunk, Michael Parrish?
Zodiac, THANK YOU. If you dont like my car, DONT F*&KING DRIVE IT. Someone else had mentioned driving their own vehicle.
People, this is to prevent your dumb ass kid from ROMPING on your car and destroying it. I have seen it done 10' of 100's of times. Your not FOOLING anyone by ranting and raving and "swearing" you wouldn't do that. Screw off! Kids are SHADY. I was..... SHADY. Get over it.
It's a great tech, but is it really the best way of growing up children? I think parents are getting lazier and lazier about their children as everything they use are getting more and more restricting the children of "accidents". How will the children learn to value their lives, if never they felt that chill of "near miss"? And how do you expect them investigate new things, if everything is restricted from the early babyhood till early tweens?
Hey, give the teenagers some space that they can discover, or we'll have just a bunch of morons who wait for some "parent" to tell them what to do in the following decades.
I can see the generation of "adults" in the following years without a single scar of a stupidity that they've done during their childhood/teens. Only unsafe thing they can do left is unsafe sex.
I can see where they are coming with this, but I do feel this won't be as effective as they are hoping.
When I was 19 I got a job where I got off work at 2am, and home was 40 miles of highway away... so I would drive home at around 120mph on the highway. I got 2 speeding tickets during that time(before even getting on the hwy, so I kept my license ha!).I payed my monthly car payments, maintenance costs... and then speeding tickets. Eventually I grew out of driving that fast, the cost of replacing worn tires and speeding tickets got old. I do think something good came of it though, I lost all fear of driving on the hwy under any conditions(live in California) and I think driving so fast all the time has to make you a bit more alert driver at normal speeds.
So yeah, give kids a chance!
5000 teens die in crashes, oh wowies! And how many 20-30 year olds die? How many 30+ year olds die? People die in crashes, there is no way around that. If you made the age resitriction to 20 so no teens could drive, teens would still die from when they are passangers and get blasted in a head on crash.
Its this lack of trust older generations have in the youth that causes the youth to rebel and drive like a mad man anyways.
Think about this. You have two cars, one with this mykey junk and another without it. You only allow your kid to drive the one with restrictions, they drive around and get pissed about what they can't do for a few months. You then need them to go out with the other car to get something, what are they going to do? Everything they can't in the other car! Now they will go flying down a side street at 90mph while blowing your crappy stock speakers.
Let kids go out and do stupid things in cars and get themselves killed. Those are the ones who would of offered little worth to improving our lives with their lack of intelligence.
Ok, so at 19 you are pretty much out from under the control of your parents legally. Thus, the my key would not really apply to people in this age group or above unless you are still at home living with you parent(s). In which case, if you are driving something provided to you then be happy with what you get. Otherwise, pony up the funds and monthly fees for insurance and get your own damn car.
Personally, I think all kids under the age of 18 should only be able to get a permit which requires a parent or grandparent to be with. None of this ‘someone over the age of 21’ garbage. Kids are kids and will continue to do stupid things behind the wheel as well as push the use of cell phones and or texting. I see it all the time where people are driving in the bike lane or hitting a curb because they aren’t screwing aro9und with something.
Hey imagine that…. Parents being parents and taking on the responsibility of making sure there kids learn how to drive properly while they are in the car. No more sending them out to be babysat by the rest of society while they are putting the rest of society at risk.
it might count for some bad habits while driving but we still need somthing to prevent the darwin award nominees from texting on there cell phones while driving like that 16 year old who died from crashing her parents SUV while trying to text on her phone
Good tech, I admit. BUT, watch this thing get hacked in a few weeks after release. Some teens aren't stupid!
qft
besides whos parents are going to go out and buy them a brand spanking new car in 2010? i think most teen drivers don't drive new cars anyways and those who do have enough money to afford paying for repairs in an accident. those who cant pay for the bills are those who are driving older cars without this tech.
One thing this could be useful is to prevent street racing...of course they use usually customized cars so they'd probably find a way around this...
I had a cousin that died at 17 this year because he was racing... so maybe if he couldn't speed he might still be around today.
it might count for some bad habits while driving but we still need somthing to prevent the darwin award nominees from texting on there cell phones while driving like that 16 year old who died from crashing her parents SUV while trying to text on her phone
Well, *if* you are afraid that your kid will be a Darwin Award Nominee, believe me, whatever precautions you take, he will.
Parents should stop goofing around and start taking care of their own kids. Teach them, be a good example and role model for them. And even after this, if the kid's acting stupid, well MyKey won't help her/him.
Your cousin deserved to die, the human race is suffering from the most deadly epidemic of them all, stupidity. Another idiot dying is good for the race as a whole. Most of the world's problems is caused by stupidity.
One word: JourneySafe
visit: www.journeysafe.com
View the statistics about the 5,000 teens killed in car crashes every year.
Learn that distraction, inexperience behind the wheel and SPEED are the leading causes of teen crashes.
Also, learn that over 70% of crashes have nothing to do with DUI and in over 65% of the crashes it's the PASSENGER who is killed not the driver. So while you're worried about taking away teenager's ability to learn by doing, you ought to be more worried about your teen being in a car driven by another teen--with or without "MyKey."
Driving is NOT second nature to newly licensed drivers. They need to gain experience. Having the graduated driver license in California helps. Making cell phone/texting illegal for 16-18 year olds helps. Giving parents a MyKey type system helps. It helps buy the teen time to even get experience driving and hopefully save their life or that of their friend who they're carting around town.