Kansas City Star:"MyKey allows parents to limit teen drivers to a top speed of 80 mph, cap the volume on the car stereo, demand seat-belt use and encourage other safe-driving habits.
MyKey will be standard equipment on the 2010 Ford Focus and eventually on all Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models.
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MyKey can sound a chime whenever the vehicle travels above 45, 55 or 65 mph, and prevent the driver from turning off safety features like traction control, which inhibits spinning tires. It can also be set to mute the radio and chime repeatedly until the driver buckles up.
Parents choose which of the restrictions to activate, and they take effect whenever a specific key is used in the ignition. There are no limitations when the master key is used."
As a exuberent youth of america, I wouldn't like this. Fortunately, I'm one of those responsible people who bought his own jeep, an old one without nutty restrictions like this.
My first thought about this was 'wow, what a way to revive flagging sales!'
But I think the better reaction, as one commentor put it, "If you cant trust your children to keep themselves alive, please dont let them drive. No amount of tech can help them."
In other automotive news, Nissian is going to rolling out the Eco-Pedal, which gives force feedback when you accelerate to fast.
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4 comments:
I almost agree with the commentator you mention. However, how do you trust anyone to drive, if they've never done it before? There is always going to be the new driver syndrome. Maybe this key is a good way to help parents keep their "new drivers" in check. That way it forces kids not to be blithering volume blasting, speed crazy, idiots.
However, I also think there might be some deepseated trust issues coming from this. At some point you have to let go, and you have to trust your kid to do the right thing. They won't always do it, but you have to give them the chance. You can't keep them tagged for the rest of their life with technology that works like an ankle cuff.
"That way it forces kids not to be blithering volume blasting, speed crazy, idiots."
Well, that takes some fun out of it... :D
We could always go to the Amish way of doing things. Back to the horse and buggy!
Of course, if the kid decides to pretend he's at the Kentucky Derby or decides to try a steeplechase over the closest barbed wire fence, all bets are off.
Or if his horse pulls a Barbaro...
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