Receiving your driver’s license as a teenager is a rite of passage that most of us look forward to and our parents dread. While parents know they can’t keep their kids young forever, driving is one of the most stressful events for any parent with a teenager. The stories of young drivers who end up in fatal crashes scare parents in many ways, making some parents worry from the time their teen leaves the house until they return with the car. Driving actually worries most parents more than drugs, alcohol, sex or academic performance for their teens.
Why is driving so stressful for parents? Many parents wonder if their child will make good choices, if they, themselves, have taught them good driving habits and even exhibited proper driving habits to ensure their teens will think while driving. As a parent, think about the last time you yelled obscenities at another vehicle, ate food or drank a drink in the car, texted or talked on the phone while driving; these are all things your teen may also do which are bad habits from behind the wheel. Thankfully Chevrolet is helping parents keep their teens safe with the Teen Driver suite of safety technology.
For 2017 this suite of safety tech will be available on ten Chevrolet models which include the Bolt, Camaro, Colorado, Cruze, Malibu, Silverado, Silverado HD, Suburban, Tahoe and Volt. This system allows parents to assign a separate key fob to their teenager, which must be registered with the Teen Driver system, and then assign specific parameter for their teen driver. This system makes it much easier for parents to feel as if they still have at least some degree of control in regards to their teen driver, even when they aren’t in the vehicle with them.
When this system is activated it allows parents to set maximum levels for the audio on the stereo and maximum speeds the vehicle is allowed to travel. The stereo won’t even begin to play unless the seat belts in the car are connected when using this system. During the use of the Teen Driver function the vehicle safety systems won’t be able to be turned off. A vehicle with lane departure warnings, parking assistance, forward collision warnings and other items will have all these feature available for the teen driver to make intelligent driving decisions on the road.
Not only does the teenager have to use these systems and keep to a safe speed while all seat belts are on and the radio at a specified level, but parents receive reports about the driving habits of their teens. These reports are included when the car is returned home and give a rundown of the distance traveled, maximum speed reached, speed warnings issued, stability control events, ABS events, traction control activations, wide open throttle events, forward collision warnings and tailgating warnings. Using this report parents can discuss the driving habits with their teen drivers in order to help them become better drivers and eventually responsible adults.v
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