If you had been looking for something that could make sure your teenagers are safe while they drive, your prayers have been answered. Ford is introducing an innovative new technology, called MyKey, designed to help parents encourage their teen-agers to drive safer and more fuel efficiently, and increase safety-belt usage.

MyKey allows owners to program a key that can limit the vehicle’s top speed and audio volume. MyKey also provides earlier low-fuel warnings and can be programmed to sound chimes at 45, 55 and 65 miles per hour.

MyKey lets parents limit their car's top driving speed to 80 miles per hour and cut off the stereo's volume at just 44% of its max output.

With MyKey, the Beltminder chime continues at the regular interval and the audio system is muted until the safety belt is buckled. It also makes it impossible to disable some of the usual safety measures like Park Aid and Cross Traffic Alert.

MyKey is appealing to parents of teen drivers, including 75 percent who like the speed-limiting feature, 72 percent who like the more insistent safety-belt reminder, and 63 percent who like the audio limit feature, according to a recent Harris Interactive Survey conducted for Ford.

Ford’s MyKey debuts next year as standard equipment on the 2010 Focus coupe and will quickly become standard on many other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models.

Link: Ford

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