Mom with teens here! I wouldn’t buy into the idea, personally. I feel very strongly that my husband and I will have well prepared our young drivers and exposed them to driving enough that they will be mature and competent behind the wheel. I also have issue with putting such a leash on 16-18 year olds. Maybe I’m just lucky, but I can trust my kids. I don’t need them to feel like I’m watching them every second, because when I’m not watching, I fear it will only give them an excuse to rebel against me, which is even more terrifying.

I remember how I was raised, catholic school girl, could barely get permission to go to the store by myself. The day I finally got freedom, I went wild!

I’m sure this will be great for many people, but I just think that if you have to use this your kid shouldn’t even be driving. Period. Am I alone?

I think there’s a mid-point between tying your teenagers shoes for them and letting the rule the roads on their own.  It’s fine to raise good children and trust them, but how they behave around you and at home is in all likelihood completely different from their behavior in a car full of peers; that’s just reality.  It is naive to think otherwise; the insurance/crash statistics prove it.  The stakes are so very high here—seconds of inattention, high speed, bad judgement, showing off, etc can take your child (or someone else’s loved one)away forever. 

You wouldn’t ask your child to go from crawling to running; giving them free reign in a car at that age, an age well known for poor judgement in even the best of kids, is not much different.  Refusing to allow your children to drive without you is putting them on a leash and robbing them of the ability to become independent.  They have to learn to make good judgements on their own, but too much too soon can be fatal.  I think this is a good thing.

Of course, I applaud preparing your kids as much as you can, and certainly plan on employing that strategy myself.  And I’m not sure it’s a trust issue as much as it is a safety issue.  No matter how much experience your teen has behind the wheel of a car, it’s still not a lot.  No matter how often you drill something into their heads and practice it, being in an emergency situation is a whole different animal. 

So I like the idea of a measure to put some limits in place so they’re not as likely to encounter those kinds of situations.  Lots of trustworthy kids get into collisions.  I’ve broken my own rules before, just because I was not paying attention, not because I was being willfully rebellious.

interesting feature! how much cost it is? parents these days are actually looking for any features on their cars that they can have control over their teens car. i love to have that on my car too just like with my ford oem parts.