Ford Motor Co. has come up with a method to permit parents to set restrictions on their teens. The device, called MyKey, is an electronic car key, which connects with an on-board computer to establish the identity of the driver, enabling such restrictions as car speed limits, shut off the radio if the seat belt isn’t buckled, and nag drivers about their speed at certain pre-set values.

Vehicle monitoring systems that watch over drivers, warning them, have been a staple of modern automobiles for a few years. Only during the past year, however, have parents been given more and more tools to watch their teenage children when driving.

The MyKey, which will be installed on some selected 2010 models to be released next year, is one of the most advanced such devices to date. It will restrict certain drivers to no more than 80 miles per hour, and will give sound warnings at 45, 55, or 65 mph depending on how cautious their parents want them to be.

MyKey "unlocks a new world of possibilities," punningly remarks Sue Cischke, Ford's group vice president for sustainability, environment and safety.

Other aftermarket devices are even more advanced; they perform real-time monitoring of the teen driver through a GPS system, and report location and speed through a website, e-mail or texting system. The only logging feature that the MyKey sports is the total mileage of a particular user of the MyKey.

Even so, most teens who were interviewed about the device were none-too-happy about it, and saw it as a “Big Brother” style method of control or a vote of suspicion from their parents. As 17-year-old Joshua Cruz, who was one of the teenagers interviewed today in Los Angeles, put it "I think it would mean that they don't trust you since they don't think that you are responsible enough to decide what to do. It is not OK, because you should be able to trust your child."

"Teens weren't really excited about this," said Ford's director of electronic and electrical systems engineering Jim Buczkowski, going on to mention that when it was pointed out to mean that accepting the system would likely lead to more vehicle access time, their interest was suddenly raised.

Teenage motor safety advocates however, were more than thrilled, considering the 35,000 American teenagers killed in car accidents during the last five years, which accounts for roughly 30% of all teenage deaths.

Ford will first implement the MyKey technology on its upcoming Ford Focus model, but there are plans to expand it to other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models.

Anne McCart, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed some reserve about the new technology: "These devices do have some potential. The question now is whether parents and teenagers will actually use them and to what extend teens will change their behavior because of them."