Driving out of control

I just drove down the FDR drive in NYC to get my car fixed and was shocked at how many horrible drivers were on the road. From the livery cars driving between 2 lanes, to the NASCAR wannabes speeding 100 miles per hour, to the guy next to me clearly texting or reading on his cell phone while driving - I was amazed at how dangerous our roads have become. The baby kicked at that moment making me painfully aware of the fact that she would one day be asking me for the keys to the car and I would reluctantly agree before reciting every driving caution in the book. I can just hear myself now.. "Don't go over 50 miles per hour", "Keep your seat belt on all times," "Never use your cell phone in the car," "Keep the volume down on the radio"!! Gosh, I am already annoying myself.

Well, it turns out that Ford must have a few worried parents on their development team. According to an Associated Press article from October, in 2010 Ford will be introducing the "MyKey" to give parents some peace of mind when their teen hits the road. MyKey enables parents to limit the maximum speed of the car to 80 mph, limit the audio system's volume, to sound continuous alerts if the driver doesn't wear a seat belt, and even to sound a chime if the teen exceeds 45, 55 or 65 mph.

A study conducted by Harris Interactive Survey for Ford indicates that the MyKey is appealing to 75 percent of parents of teen drivers because of the speed-limiting feature, 72 percent like the more insistent safety-belt reminder, and 63 percent like the audio limit feature.



The MyKey would certainly make me feel a bit more comfortable turning over the keys to my kids and the survey showed that about 50 percent of parents also said they would allow their children to use the family vehicle more often if it were equipped with the new technology.

Good news for parents and good news for teens, this is surely a great technology for parents to consider. The MyKey will debut as a standard feature on the 2010 Ford Focus and will quickly be offered on many other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models.