Younger drivers pay more in car insurance because the statistics suggest that they’re riskier driving prospects. Part of that risk comes from electronic distractions such as text messaging. Starting from next year, Ford’s MyKey will enable parents to limit their children’s in-car access to obvious SMS and phone messages, with the prospect of blocking speeding also on the horizon.
MyKey works by selectively blocking Bluetooth-enabled tones from getting through the car’s sound system, instead sending all calls to voicemail and SMS messages silently to the phone itself. The video below is (rather obviously) for the US models, where there are subtle differences.
In the US, MyKey can also be used to send speed alert chimes to your leaden-footed teens as well, but there’s no current timeline on when or if we’ll see those features. Ford representative told me that the anti-speeding feature isn’t currently available here, and that it’s something that’ll
roll out over time through the Ford group in specific markets. A lot of work is required to ‘localise’ many new technologies so they work in Australia conditions and this is something Ford is continually doing as newer vehicles are sold here.”
I think the idea is exemplary — far too many young people (I used to be young… once) die senselessly on the road. That being said, all your teen has to do to bypass it is switch Bluetooth off on their phone, and it’ll ring as per normal, making it all rather moot. [Ford http://www.ford.com.au/]