Parents can also limit the audio system’s maximum volume and specify preset speeds at which audible and visual warnings will go off.
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Chevrolet today said it is expanding its Teen Driver technology this fall to nine nameplates, covering 64 percent of the brand’s sales. The system automatically turns on and prevents disabling of any active safety technology, such as lane departure, blind sport warning and automatic emergency braking systems.
Teens give their parents plenty of reasons to worry about what happens when they’re behind the wheel.
A Harris Poll online survey commissioned by Chevy in June found that 55 percent of parents with teens worry about driving, compared with 53 percent who worry about academic performance, 52 percent who worry about drugs and alcohol, and 49 percent who worry about sexual activity. Parents must register their teen’s key fob in the vehicle’s system settings to use it.
Parents can also keep track of how their teen driver is doing, courtesy of an in-vehicle “report card” that shows how the vehicle was driven. Introduced on the 2016 Malibu, this permanent service is standard issue on that vehicle and will be added to the 2017 Chevy Bolt, Camaro, Colorado, Cruze, Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe and Volt models. There also are aftermarket monitoring systems with varying features. “And while we can’t control a teen’s behavior when they are in a auto without a parent, Chevrolet’s Teen Driver Technology can remind them to buckle up and avoid speeding, while our other available active safety features can help to alert them in certain situations when they’re making less-than-perfect driving decisions”.
The Chevy system includes what the brand says is an industry first: a report card that a parent can display after the teen has used the vehicle listing such items as distance, top speed and speed alerts, use of wide-open throttle, forward collision alerts and braking, and activations of such systems as stability control.
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Chevrolet’s safety engineer MaryAnn Beebe says that the teen driving system was developed, not just to help out parents, but to give teenagers additional coaching when they are new to the road.
