Ford has made parenting a little easier by introducing MyKey, a programmable ignition key for Ford automobiles that monitors teenage driving behavior. With MyKey in place, various driving habits that parents may consider unsafe, or merely obnoxious, can be curtailed.
One thing parents must worry about when handing over the keys for the family car to a teenager is if junior is going to have a lead foot. Ford saw a market for this worry and is addressing it by adding a new standard feature beginning with the 2010 Ford Focus. The new system called MyKey will be offered on other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models as well.

Besides giving parents the ability to limit the vehicle’s top speed, the system can also limit a car’s audio volume. Anyone who has been passed by a teenager with the goal of shattering the glass in their car will appreciate that feature. Teenagers will also be able to receive earlier low-fuel warnings and safety chimes when the car reaches 45, 55 and 65 miles per hour.

If that wasn’t enough, the MyKey system even has a more insistant seat belt reminder to ensure your young driver is buckling up. To ensure youngsters aren’t disabling other safety features the driver will not be able to turn off driving aids such as Park Aid and BLISTM (Blind Spot Information System) with Cross Traffic Alert when MyKey is in the ingnition. A Harris Interactive Survey conducted by Ford found that 75% of parents like the speed limiting feature, 72% appreciated the improved safety-belt reminder and  63% like the audio limit feature.

Read more from the Ford press release.

Brian’s Opinion
I’ve just got to ask. Who were the parents that thought that a speed limit feature was a bad idea for a car a teenager would drive? I have a feeling that it was the father who was asked the question and he probably said no because of his belief that the wife might have disabled the top speed on the car for him as well. Sometimes there is more than one perceived teenager in the household.

{ad}I have to admit that my favorite feature with the MyKey system is the ability to limit audio volume. Let’s just be frank, kids that drive down the street with their radio blasting are just complete idiots. The music is not only a distraction to them, but to other drivers around them. Not to mention the song that is usually playing sucks.

Safety will continue to be a huge consideration for cars in the future. Undoubtedly, insurance companies will offer discounts for cars with systems such as MyKey. That will fuel the desire by consumers for these systems even more. I get the feeling that if some teenager wakes up with a 2010 Ford Focus in their driveway on their 16th birthday they won’t be as enthusastic as they might have been for previous models.
It covers all the common parental complaints: The car’s speed cannot exceed 80mph. Radio volume is limited to 44 percent of maximum and, if seatbelts aren’t fastened, no sound will come from the speakers at all. Extra-careful and/or paranoid parents can place warning sounds at 45, 55, and 65mph, blasting a warning of potential reckless driving to the youthful driver.

Ford realizes this is annoying. Susan Cischke, Ford’s group vice president of sustainability, environment and safety engineering even said she hoped to “turn up the annoyance factor a little bit.”

MyKey will be introduced as a free standard feature in the 2010 Ford Focus model. Ford hopes to make MyKey a standard feature on all Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury models thereafter.

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MyKey is built on ID chips already used in keys to help deter car theft, and evolved through changing software. MyKey tracks only the distance traveled by the car, so while it may seem relatively harmless now, parents who want other features to loom over their children — such as point-by-point GPS tracking — may be able to add them on for a fee.

Naturally, teenagers didn’t warm up to the idea. After initial testing, 67 percent of teens said they wouldn’t want MyKey. The number dropped to 36 percent if greater driving privileges were granted. But they aren’t the ones buying the cars . . .

Traffic accidents remain the leading cause of death among teenagers, and Ford has this statistic in mind. I’m uncertain whether a few beeping noises and a speeding cap will make a difference in the long-run, but it’s a noble cause.