Teenagers are terrible drivers. It’s why parents worry about handing over the keys to a brand new car to their brand new driver. It’s also why Chevy has developed a new “Teen Driver” nanny mode to keep young drivers from getting into too much trouble—or at least to report them when they do.
The feature, available in the new 2016 Chevy Malibu, does clever things to get teens to make smarter decisions. For instance, it mutes the radio if the front seat drivers aren’t wearing their seat belts. Brilliant!
More frighteningly for America’s youth, Teen Driver allows parents to put limits on the car, associated with a specific key fob, so their spawn can’t disable safety features like stability and traction control, park assist, daytime running lights, and blind spot monitoring. So sorry, no more burnouts. And no more rush from changing lanes without checking your blind spot. Parents can also set a maximum speed from 40 to 75mph, that, if exceeded, will trigger visual and audible warnings to scold the driver.
The feature will also let parents see a report of total distance driven, maximum speed traveled, how many speed warnings were issued, or if there were any antilock or stability control events (i.e., driver screw-ups).
The tech doesn’t seem to be anything new: Chevy (along with other automakers) already offers Valet Mode on cars like the new Corvette, which limits how the car is driven, and uses an on-board camera and data recorders to prevent Ferris Bueller-style abuse.
Notably, as Car & Driver points out, the system doesn’t do anything to curb distracted driving from mobile devices, arguably a bigger danger to teen drivers than the urge to turn off traction control or daytime running lights. So maybe Chevy should look into developing features that punch the teenager in the arm anytime he looks at his phone instead of the road.
The 2016 Chevy Malibu will be unveiled at the New York auto show next month.
No comments:
Post a Comment