Ford MyKey parental control to annoy teens

Ford has unveiled one of the first parental control solutions for cars: the MyKey. This feature is designed to limit the vehicle's functionality when parents hand over their car to their teens.

For instance, with the MyKey in the ignition, teens will not be able to drive faster than 80 mph and the car's stereo system will not go beyond 44 percent of the maximum volume. Parents can also have the option to enable a sustain chime when the driver or passengers aren't using their seatbelts and there's also an option to annoy your teenager when he/she drives more than 45, 55 or 65mph:

With the MyKey in the ignition, the car's top speed is limited to 80 mph and/or the stereo is limited to 44 percent of the maximum volume. Parents can set or unset these options, based on how responsible they think their young drivers are. With the key parents can also enable a sustain chime which will go off if the driver or passengers aren't using their seatbelts.

Even teens are begrudgingly warming up to the new idea. When surveyed, 67 percent of teens didn't like "the man" sticking it to their driving rights. However, when the teens were informed that the system would increase the frequency that their parents lent them their car, all but 36 percent got behind the idea.

For Ford, the new technology was relatively easy to implement as it uses off-the-shelf tech from within the company. For the new system, Ford adapted its SecuriLock tech, used in car-theft deterrence, which recognizes which key is in the ignition and adjusts the allowed vehicle operation accordingly.

The MyKey system is packed with even more functionality, also allowing traction control to be permanently enabled and enabling warning chimes to go off when the car reaches 45, 55 or 65 mph.

Source: DailyTech