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ed11563


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Teen Drivers: You Are Being Watched
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Teen Drivers: You Are Being Watched

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Tom & Ray

Dec 30, 2014 (Archives)

5 Comments

teens

Dear Car Talk:

I am teaching my nephew to drive. I have seen, over the years, that a number of teenagers have died from speeding in excess of 90 mph. I know that commercial trucks have speed inhibitors on them so they can't go over 65 mph. The companies also save on gas and speeding tickets, and get insurance breaks with these. For the life of me, I can't find something like that for my car (a Honda Civic). I don't want my nephew to drive in a car that can go over 65 mph. Where can I find such a device for my car?

-- John

Car Talk: Newer Fords have a feature called MyKey that allows the owner of the car to program a specific key. When that key is used, limits are set on the car's performance. So if you're in the market for a new car, that would be one solution. But unfortunately, kids can, and do, kill themselves going a lot slower than 65 mph. 

An all-too-common tragedy involves a car full of kids, late at night, driving 50 mph on a curvy, dark road where the speed limit is 30, and there are sharp turns with speed limits of even less than that. Typically, the driver misjudges a turn at too high a speed and wraps the car around a tree. Then you have to watch weeping former classmates on TV the next day. 

So instead, I think you need to get your nephew a nanny. Not a cute 17-year-old female nanny -- an electronic nanny.

There are a number of devices on the market these days that plug into the on-board diagnostic (OBD II) port of pretty much any car. They read data from the car's computer and record vehicle speed, hard acceleration, panic braking and other parameters that indicate that your kid has been driving like a knucklehead.

Some require you to take the device inside and plug it into your computer. Others will send you an email report once a day or once a week. Some will even text you when a set speed limit is exceeded.

The idea is not to spy on the kid secretly, but to let him know upfront that you're keeping a close eye on how he drives. Unless he's a complete dummy, if he knows that you'll find out if he goes 80 miles an hour or slams on the gas from a stoplight, he should be less likely to do those things. 

If you search online for "teen driving monitors," you'll find a bunch of products, including those by MOTOsafety, CarCheckup, InTouch MVC and others. 

But check with your car-insurance company first. Several insurers, including Travelers and Progressive, offer such devices, and they even offer discounts for people who use them. 

And the fact that the insurance companies -- which we know hate to part with a penny -- will pay people to use these things is the best argument that they probably are effective. Good luck, John. 

 

 

 

George_San_Jose • 2 days ago

It would be great if there was a way to prevent teenagers from driving if there are other people in the car. I've noticed teenagers drive with a lot more common sense when they are driving by themselves, alone in the car. It's when they get their friends in the car with them that trouble develops.

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hyhybt George_San_Jose • a day ago

I *think* current law here is they can have only one non-relative passenger.

I'm right, you're not. hyhybt • a day ago

It depends on what state they are in. It's also usually only as long as they have their learner's permit.

 

BillRussell • a day ago

"commercial trucks have speed inhibitors on them so they can't go over 65 mph" ... wish that were true. I drive a lot on highways with a 65 MPH speed limit, and rarely do I see a truck obeying that limit. Usually they cruise at 70-75 MPH.

 

hyhybt • a day ago

I had one of those from my insurance company recently, and found that, while it may have made me drive safer at first, over time it made my driving less safe. Why? Because they counted any deceleration 7mph/s or more against you. To avoid the chance of its going off, I found myself tempted, at that point where a light turns yellow and you can either brake safely but a little more than is comfortable or else risk its turning red just as you get to it, to choose the latter, or to brake not quite enough and wind up with half the car over the line... or, when a car ahead of me stopping, slowing down as slowly as I could manage without actually hitting them rather than braking harder early and then rolling up slower. After so many months they had me send it back, and good riddance.

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huskerbb


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Part of the problem is that we turn teen drivers out on the road with little to no real training.

Maybe a year of driving on a learner's permit with mom or dad. Maybe a short driver's ed course. Barely anything.

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ed11563


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One of my high school friends drove his parents' Buick.

It has a "governor", which was set by a dial to the maximum desired speed.

If he  drove faster than the setting, an orange light would come on in the speedometer dial, and a loud buzzer would sound.

 

 



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huskerbb


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ed11563 wrote:

One of my high school friends drove his parents' Buick.

It has a "governor", which was set by a dial to the maximum desired speed.

If he  drove faster than the setting, an orange light would come on in the speedometer dial, and a loud buzzer would sound.

 

 

But like the article notes, it's not always raw speed--it's speed for the conditions.

 

It's also factors such as texting or even talking on the cell phone while driving.  It's showing off for friends.  It's teen drinking.   It's just the fact that they don't have the experience to handle difficult driving situations.

I know a young girl who got killed in a one vehicle accident in broad daylight on a gravel road she'd driven a hundred times or more.  She was only going 50 or so mph, but she slid on the loose gravel and rolled the car. 

Too fast?  Maybe for the conditions, but a more experienced driver probably could have driven that speed on that gravel and been fine. 



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lilyofcourse


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I wouldn't want anything that would inhibit my kid's ability to get out of the way on the road.

Sorry but the speed limit is 70 on the interstate and at 65 they could get run over.

A person needs the ability to execute maneuvers in traffic.

I don't like the kill switch things in cars either. Or the automatic braking things. I don't like anything that take the responsibility and control from the driver.

We all learned to drive. I don't know why we think our kids cant.

I do like our laws for new drivers here.

Here, the learning driver can only drive with immediate family.

And when they get their actual license they can not have more than one person in the car with them for, I think it is 6 months that is not related without a licensed driver over 18. Then they can only have 1 other in the car with them for 6 months after that.

It is like a graduated system.

They can drive by their selves any where.

And in our state the parent has the ability to pull their kid's license at any time until the kid turns 18.

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I think if they took the kids to a place where they could drive at those speeds safely, it would remove some of the "forbidden fruit" sense of the speeds. When I was that age, I wanted to drive that speed because it wasn't allowed and I wanted to see what it was like. Take the kids somewhere and let them do it supervised.

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wild_blue


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Speed limits on many highways are 70 or 80. Why does he want them to top out at 65? Dumb.

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huskerbb


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He's focusing on one small aspect of a many-faceted problem.

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