More Parental Control of Teens’ Cars Coming?

Folks exposed to the business side of auto insurance are aware that claim frequency has been helped recently by demographic trends, and changes impacting teen drivers, including the introduction of graduated licensing.

It looks like a few of those teen-impacting trends may continue.   Seen at CNN:

Starting next year, Ford Motor Co. will allow parents to limit the speed at which their teenage children drive their car.

The company will roll out a new feature on many 2010 models that can limit teen drivers to 80 mph (130 kph), using a computer chip in the key.

Parents in the United States, where most teens can get their drivers license at 16, also have the option of programming the car key to limit the audio system’s volume, and to sound continuous alerts if the driver doesn’t wear a seat belt.[…]

Ford arrived at the 80 mph (130 kph) limit even though freeway speed limits are lower in most states because it wanted to leave a margin in case an unusual situation arises, Buczkowski said. In some states, freeway speed limits are above 70 mph (112 kph), Sherwood said.[…]

Ford said its market research shows 75 percent of parents like the speed and audio limits, but as you might expect, 67 percent of teens don’t like them.

I suppose that it’s time to start thinking about how to tweak the interaction of vehicle symbol, driver class, and/or discounts to account for vehicle features such as this.