Ford will offer special key for teen drivers that changes vehicle features
In 2010 Ford will introduce a car key that parents can give to their teenage drivers, which changes the settings on various safety features in the car.
The MyKey system allows the parent to program any key through the vehicle message center, which updates the SecuriLock™ passive anti-theft system. When the MyKey is inserted into the ignition, the system reads the transponder chip in the key and immediately identifies the MyKey code, which enables certain default driving modes, including:Ford Introduces MyKey- Persistent Ford Beltminder™ with audio mute. Ford's Beltminder system typically provides a six-second reminder chime every minute for five minutes. With MyKey, the Beltminder chime continues at the regular interval and the audio system is muted until the safety belt is buckled. A message center display "Buckle Up to Unmute Radio" also appears on the instrument cluster.
- Earlier low-fuel warning. Rather than a warning at 50 miles to empty, MyKey provides a warning at 75 miles to empty.
- If MyKey is in the ignition, features such as Park Aid and BLISTM (Blind Spot Information System) with Cross Traffic Alert cannot be deactivated.
Additional MyKey features that can be programmed through the vehicle's message center setup menu:
- Limited top speed of 80 mph
- Traction control system, that limits tire spin, cannot be deactivated
- Limited audio volume to 44 percent of total volume
- A speed alert chime at 45, 55 or 65 mph
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It should have a breathalyzer,too, that would make it so they couldn't start the car if they'd been drinking.
I gotta get me one of them vee-hick-uhls
80 mph? Seriously? Try 75.
When I got my license, my parents' car was a broke-down '68 Valiant 4-door that couldn't do over 65 going downhill with a tailwind, let alone spin the tires. And the AM radio's single speaker had a large tear in it that buzzed so loudly it made silence the preferable option.
Did that make me a safer driver? Heh.
can't raise your own children in a manner that you trust them?
Yikes, how long before it's illegal for minors to drive with anything other than a MyKey?
Or you know, Ford could just manufacture vehicles that can't achieve speeds more than 20KM/hr over the highest speed limit.
I can live with this, but when they start spouting bible verses when things get hot and heavy in the backseat I'm drawing the line.
vehical = vehicle.
Can't wait until Junior gets stuck at the bottom of an icy hill with his traction control locked on. That's safe.
How about a lock-out that stops the handbrake from being pulled while the car is in motion? Stop Saudi drifting before it starts!
Wouldn't help much, Gloria. Montana, you know.
Am I the only one who thinks this is BOTH cool AND creepy?
Am I the only one who thinks teenagers will swipe their parents' keys, or swap them for their own? Parents might not notice for weeks.
Am I the only one who thinks this will actually keep some kids alive through their teen-driving years, while simultaneously preventing them from acquiring the skills and judgement needed to survive their 10-something driving skills?
Am I the only one who thinks the only appropriate use of this key is for temporary "probation" when the teen has already messed up driving (preventable accident, speeding ticket, etc.)?
Pretty cool. And less draconian than I would have expected.
They can add a feature that disables cell phones within a 1 meter radius of the steering wheel.
GLORIA ford has been, for years, making cars that just can't go 20KM/hr over the highest posted speed limit. the tempo and escort come to mind.
Hear, hear Takuan; my thoughts exactly. Yet another gadget that encourages parents to take less responsibility for their offspring.
What if your teen is being chased by Libyans and needs to do 90 in order to get away safely!?
I like the graphics!
1. Get My Key from grandparents. You must look like a chimp with some stupid fresh headgear.
2. My Key prevents passengers with modern haircuts from entering vehicle.
3. The faster you go, the more bitchin' your bass is.
4. My Key enables Nazi salute as you leave the hangar.
@14: Then the terrorists will have won.
Will Ford even exist in 2010?
Hey kids! Your friends at Ford have devised an exciting new way for you to learn about responsible driving: ubiquitous automated control! Don't worry, it is completely optional, if you can pay the insurance premiums...
I've actually wanted something like this, but for valet parking, for a long time. With even more restrictions.
The restrictions listed are, for the most part, something that no driver -- of any age -- should really run into. The most annoying of them is the top speed of 80mph, but I expect we'll be seeing a lot more of that.
Sadly, in a world where both parents are often working at least one job teens often need to drive themselves places even if they've proven themselves undeserving of the privilege of driving. It's for this reason alone that I think MrKey is a good product. Anything else just smacks of parents wanting to turn over yet another parental responsibility to someone else.
What if the parents are so stupid that they negligently put their kids in harm's way? For example, the parent limits the top speed to 55 MPH. I can think of plenty of situations where someone might need to go faster than that for brief periods of time. But if the teen is prevented from doing so they might end up in an accident instead of avoiding one.
Based on what I see here in Miami it's actually the parents who need MrKey more than their teens do!
Oops. s/MrKey/MyKey/;
Great, I can't wait for Trojan to come up with MyCondom to take all the fun out of sex too.
MyParent.
* Allan, I doth love the reference! (It's 88 mph btw.)
* I'm getting this veee-hic!-ill for myself. You know, so long as it taps into YahooMaps, detects bars, and has an anti-swerve option when in eyeshot of The Man. I'm just not ready for the Breathalyzer option. (How appropos my reCaptcha: taking Shiraz!)
* Somebody obviously is either not a parent or has no clue what its offspring is up to in privacy. It's not a matter of trust, it's a matter of safety and controlled skill development. Besides since trust is earned, the "overly protective" features can be reduced/removed once safety skill-sets are secondhand nature and demonstrated over six months or an inclement season.
My Ford Ranger is speed limited at 90 mph. I found that out trying to outrun some drag-racing road-raging semi-trucks. (They were angry at each other, not at me.)
My Acura RSX was governed at 110. (That time the truck was chasing me. I was forced to pass on the shoulder after he merged into my lane. He thought that was rude.)
I saw this in the paper yesterday, and personally I think it's a great idea. Now, if only they could implement the same thing in to the taxis here. Over the past year I can't recall a single cab that I've taken where the driver was wearing his seat belt, or completely obey the speed limit.
If your teen can't be trusted to use a radio responsibly then why are you letting them drive your car?
Also, MyKey is a goofy name. If it was MY key it would boost the sound system by 100%, activate the nitro and automatically wind the window down for hotties. This is more like a MommyKey.
so... How many kids are going to just switch keys with their parents?
Here in Chicago, I don't even want to get behind the wheel. People drive like total morons. I really prefer taking the L if going downtown. I have two teenage kids. I don't really want them to learn how to drive in *this* city - if they someday move where the driving is more civilized like Seattle, I'd be all for them driving. I totally trust my kids,and I remember what it was like to be a teenager. You can have a lot going on in your brain - a lot of things competing for your command console. Their brains run a 100 rpm s faster than mine.
Unfortunately, as far as automation in vehicles is concerned, they should either be totally automated ( eg.all cars on freeway going the exact same speed, completely controlled by networked computers ) or not all.
@Takuan
You can't possibly be serious. My parents put a lot of work into getting me to follow the rules, but on the road with the car at 16, I definitely broke them time and again. It's human nature to do so, and these days I can see why those rules are there. But drawing a straight unbreakable line between parenting and pushing the limits with a car is just so... well it's the kind of Sarah Palin simplistic thinking that 'if they just...' fill in the blank, everything would be just rosy.
So I have to conclude that you're joking, because no thinking grownup could possibly expect that 'proper parenting' is going to correct the thousands of examples of bad driving that kids are exposed to before they ever take keys in hand.
Hey, I'm only 21, certainly young enough to remember being in the age targeted by this.
I think it's a useful idea. It's up to the parents to be smart and fair about how they use it in practice, but all of those features seem like they're just encouraging good driving practices. The radio volume one may sound a little dumb, but in many places (such as where I live) it's illegal to have the volume as loud as I'm tempted to have it myself, since it makes it much more difficult to hear, for example, a siren.
Using the system in an improper way might lead to some friction on the trust issue, but from a practical point of view, if you're driving safely you shouldn't notice those limitations at all. The speed limit is just high enough to edge over the fastest highway speed limits in the country, which is plenty, seat belt is just a no-brainer, and the other features do seem tailored toward helping a new driver develop habits that save them a lot of fuss down the road (oh god the pun).
Of course there will be less skillful parents who'd just use this to damage whatever trust and respect there was between them and their teenager.
people wouldnt have to drive dangerously if the slower/dumber traffic would simply be more aware of traffic, proper use of lanes, and being aware of where they are going
I can understand the speed limit...I don't see much use for a car to go over 80 unless someone is like...being chased by a really fast dinosaur.
But the music level? That's silly. Music is best when listened to loudly (unless the bass is so loud that it makes your throat hurt...I don't see the appeal of that...but still, if other people like that, I don't see a reason to restrict it).
People wouldn't have to be subjected to dangerous driving if the faster/dumber traffic would simply be more aware of speed limits and traffic laws, proper use of lanes, and being considerate of others.
As far as sloughing off parental responsibility, this doesn't seem unprecedented. Internet filters and curfews are also aimed at removing temptations for your child. Balancing protection with discipline is the big challenge of parenting, isn't it?
And aren't these driving rules that everyone should be following - not just kids?
A better and cheaper solution - instead of buying little Timmy a brand new car (like the trend seems to be around here), buy him an 85 Honda Civic. Or better yet, give him a loan to buy it on the condition he gets and holds a job...
Fine, fine. Now what are they gonna do about the elderly lady who crashed into the café on the corner last year? Got a key for that?
Do they make a key that reminds "new drivers" to brush their teeth and wash behind their ears?
As with any thing else that matches the regexp /^[Mm][Yy].*/ I don't like it.
This is down right creepy.
I feel safe saying any kid who gets handed something like this and still trusts parents afterward is a fraging idiot.
@#36 posted by krebscout
No. I would factor the warning stuff under annoying and distracting. The early fuel warning is just stupid. There is no excuse for ever letting it drop under a quarter tank.
@#32 posted by Todd Sieling
That could be said about any thing.
Other features include:
- Changing vehicle color to $#!+ brown.
- Adding large rust stains.
- Dragging muffler on the ground.
- Windows won't roll down in the summer, or up in the winter.
- A/C will not work in summer. Heat will not work in winter.
- Stereo system will now accept cassettes only.
- Radio will only receive 2 radio stations clearly: Talk, and country.
- Faint gasoline smell added to car interior.
- Back seat springs adjusted to make sex uncomfortable.
- Brakes, belts, and tires all emit squealing noises.
Now THAT is what a teen's first car should be like.
I think most car speedometers overread by about 10% anyway, so that 80 mi/h limit is likely to be closer to 75-ish. Pretty good idea, if you ask me, and I'm still just about a teenager. I wouldn't want to go faster than 80 anyhow, especially since here in the UK new drivers automatically lose their licence if guilty of speeding, even once.
Hmm - sounds like a gold mine for dealerships. I paid $50 for a replacement key with chip (bought used car, only had two keys, wife & I needed backup/spare).
Most teens barely have their heads nailed on lest they lose them. If they lose MyKeys at the rate other stuff gets lost by them, there'd be a pretty long line at the dealership to get replacements made. Also, isn't there a limit on how many replacement keys with chips can be made per vehicle?
Honestly I only really want to see someone crack open the source code and see what other 'options' a person could have made available or not available but were eventually left out of the final product... I mean imagine a key that not just unlocks/starts the car, but adjusts the seat to right where you like it, the environmental controls, your favorites on the Nav system, literally like logging into your computer and seeing YOUR environment the way YOU like it, but for a car...
I know we potentially see the creepy factor here and it could be given say a third party access to this information/tools to affect a car. But if the owner of the car doesn't want a particular person to have particular abilities with their vehicle and can enforce that... all the power to them... be it parents being dicks towards their kids, or a company controlling the insurance rates by using these cars for their personal fleet. You own the car, YOU should be able to tweak/modify/make it 0W3NZ0R3D by you. They don't like it, they can save the pennies to get their own, buy their own gas, pay their own insurance... its called owning your responsibility.
Why do cars only have annoying alarms to make you put on your seatbelt? Why don't we make it so that your car will not start until every passenger has put their seatbelt on. Sure, people could take them off after the car starts moving, but there's not much you can do about that.
"can't raise your own children in a manner that you trust them?"
Indeed, perhaps for those parents we could pay people to roam the streets looking for dangerous drivers.
The top speed limiter is a very dangerous feature and could possibly be the cause of a lethal car crash.
While performing a take-over, you will sometimes notice a vehicle approaching you in the other lane. And sometimes, the situation is such, that you have no choice but to floor it in order to be able to perform the overtake and make room for the car approaching in the opposite direction.
Imagine being confronted with a speed limiter at that moment.
Thanks Dad!
@#45 posted by Apreche
Meh. Stuff locking out like that is not good. Those are the sort of safeties that need to be ignorable to be safe.
Ford goes out of business in 2012.
#48 posted by Marcel
Yup.
Several years ago I was actually in a situation where a semi decided to merge into a lane I was in, in different of the vehicles already there. Unfortunately I could not hit the brakes do to vehicles behind me and plus given that I was closer to the front it was a simple choice, floor it and blow past the semi.
Marcel,
That's what the pedel NEXT to the accelerator is used for...
If you can't get out of trouble by doing 80 or less, you really need to rethink your driving skills.
Marcel,
Young drivers should never try to pass in the opposite lane. In fact, I would argue that it is dangerous for almost anyone to do.
My technique is to perform an alternating high-beam flash/horn honk maneuver.
:P
I like the idea, but not for any kid of mine (any kid of mine will be an awesome driver) but for certain other members of my family, to whom I might occasionally have to loan my car. Particularly the stereo and speed limit options. I can trust myself to educate a kid to listen to reason, but older members of the family, or even siblings, might not. Especially with the damn seatbelt thing. Grandpa.
@#52 posted by theMage
Some times going forward is safer than dropping back as it can occasionally be more timely and does not become an option. This is irregardless of one's driving skill.
@#53 posted by anaximander
For those situation, I've always preferred not lending it out.
The graphic looks suspiciously similar to the delightful artwork of one Mark Dancey (from the erstwhile 'zine Motorbooty and the late, lamented band Big Chief). He lives in Detroit, so perhaps that's the Ford connection, or else someone is really ripping off his style. Here's a link to his website, which you Boing Boing art types should enjoy:
http://www.iluminado.us/
People who use this are bad parents in the same way parents with a lock on the liquor cabinet are.
I just give my kids a list of things that might kill them and them drop them off in the woods once they're old enough to toddle. If any ever make it home, I'll send them to college or something I guess.
@ #41 posted by Vvelox
True that, but most things aren't distraction-filled 1-tonne machines with a margin of error that can be measured in less than 5 seconds.
Persistent bouncing of the rear axle w/o the car in gear will result is an immediate text to the responsible party, and a spraying of the back seat with spermicide and Febreez.
Personally I have felt for a long time that one simple change that would increase road safety among new drivers would be to switch the order of the drinking and driving ages.
e.g. in Germany (last I knew, anyway) the ages were 16 to drink and 18 to drive. That way you get to learn your limits for drink when you're not going home by piloting several tonnes of metal at high speeds, rather than just as you've developed a good head of overconfidence in your driving.
I have no particular attachment to those ages, they should just come in that order, preferably with two years between, rather than one.
When I suggest this, people in North America often laugh, like the idea of allowing 16 year olds to drink but not drive is unthinkable. Europeans are, if anything, mildly surprised at how we have things backward.
@OKCALVIN#44- I work for a Volvo(Owned by Ford) dealership in N.California. The replacement keys will run you $170-$310 ea. I cringe every time I pick up the phone and customers ask for a quote on a new key. What is even better is if they are from way up north, say Eureka. Then the car must be towed all the way down here for the key programming. You can have a $1000 towing bill just getting here.
Most of the things this key does should probably be applied to every car, regardless of the driver.
@ #61
I think that is a good plan in theory, but really, plenty of people from all ages drive drunk. There is a slight increase for those "new" drinkers, but not significant in my opinion. Besides, age alone is responsible for decreasing the belief that one is invulnerable, which most teens carry.
"In fatal crashes in 2006, the highest percentage of drivers with a BAC level of .08 or higher was for drivers ages 21-24 (33%), followed by ages 25-34 (29%) and 35-44 (25%)."
- http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics.html
How retardedly ageist.
@32
mmmmmmpff.... how to explain.....
When you take your son onto the sea ice for the first time and when you watch him set out in his first kayak alone for the first time you must be sure you did everything possible to ensure his return. It is not so much worrying about the examples of others so much as teaching him to listen to the sea.
I'm 99% sure every teenager does stupid stuff behind the wheel, no matter how "smart" they are. It's called thinning the herd, hopefully it is only self inflicted.
China was right, in 20 years only the dumb will procreate.
When your teenager is speeding around drunk without a seatbelt, they will be awfully distracted with all those chimes and warning bells.
#57: That's the first thing I thought when I saw the ad. I'm ready to support MyKey if it means I can see new Mark Dancey work.