Ford put's on it's "Big Brother" t-shirt...

[perfecto1]

Borderline "big brotherish" but a really cool concept nonetheless...

Ford announced today a new technology called MyKey that will be standard on the 2010 Focus Coupe and quickly spread to the rest of the Blue Oval's lineup. MyKey can do three basic things: allow parents to limit a vehicle's top speed to 80 mph and/or the stereo's volume up to 44% of its max, and set a sustaining chime if the seatbelts aren't being used. Clearly targeted towards worry wart parents, the MyKey system is meant to keep teens safe despite their protestation that a system like this curtails their kiddy freedoms. Ford did some polling and found that 67% of teens didn't like the idea, though that number fell to 36% if the MyKey system led to parents letting the kids use the car more.

The MyKey system uses off-the-shelf technology from within Ford, particularly the SecuriLock passive anti-theft system, to identify which keys are in the ignition and therefore which driving mode to enable. It's certainly feels a lot like Big Brother, but we suppose parents have the right to play Big Bro' when the safety of their children is at stake.

Other things the MyKey system can do is permanently enable the traction control system and set chimes for when the car reaches 45, 55 or 65 mph. This technology will likely make the Ford Focus Coupe a popular choice for both parents and teens, the latter of which may be appeased by the SNYC system that's also available in these cars.

[BadNick]

Now that my two boys are starting to talk about driving in a few years, I'd like to find out if I could trade those numbers to make it 44mph max and 80% stereo volume...might as well throw out that "sustaining chime if the seatbelts aren't being used" and give me a complete shutdown mode with auto dial my cell phone.

[fiatguy85]

I think the most important part is getting them to focus on the road and driving, not music and talking to their friends. I think the SYNC system is one of the voice activated bluetooth systems which helps with that, even more so if it works with a phone as well.

[genuinegirly]

Neat idea, I'm interested in seeing if it works. Any new feature they can come up with that might increase their market share is a good thing at this point, especially one that is relatively inexpensive to impliment.

Though, since it's key-based, all the kid would have to do is switch their key with their parents'. Eh, oh well. Nothing is perfect.

[Bear Cub]

Neat idea, but 80 mph? I hope they don't plan on marketing to many east coasters, because that's well above the typical highway speed limit.

[Redlemon]

I don't think I would have minded these sorts of restrictions when I was a kid, and I have 10 years before I have to make a decision about my son driving, so we'll see where technology goes by then.

One thing that the system is missing; a box to put the cell phone in, which locks once the car is put into gear, and the car won't work without the cell phone in there. No idea how to actually accomplish that, but it would be nice...

[Daniel_]

Originally Posted by Bear Cub

Neat idea, but 80 mph? I hope they don't plan on marketing to many east coasters, because that's well above the typical highway speed limit.

The reason for this is probably risk management and liability issues.

Ford have to argue that there are circumstances where it is safer to speed than not to (avoiding an accident etc), otherwise they would be subject to duty of care cases where people killed by speeding drivers bring class actions arguing that manufacturing a car CAPABLE of speeding led to the road deaths.

By setting the limit ABOVE the max speed restriction of the roads they can argue that it prevents kiddies having access to racing speeds, but allows them to power out of danger.

[thadon]

now that is cool and should save some lives

[Willravel]

I give it about 15 minutes until someone has located and made a replacement for the chip. I had my top speed governor out the day I got my first car.