Teen Driver Technologies that Help Young Drivers Stay Safe
18 Apr 2022Thinking about your teen driving can be both nerve-wracking and frightening, to say the least. While they (should have) passed their driving exams and you should have some confidence in their driving abilities, you can’t account for distractions on the road or other drivers. Luckily, there are new teen driver technologies that can help young drivers stay safe on the road, and thereby ease your mind.
Teen Driving Apps
Some teen driving apps, like the Life360 app, are designed to keep families in the loop. This app uses location monitoring so parents can know if their teens made it safely to their friend’s house, or are back home when they should be. Plus, it allows you to monitor speed, and it even sends text alerts in response to hard braking, fast accelerations, and even crashes.
Other driving apps, like DriveMode, remove distractions by silencing notifications when it picks up that the user is driving.
GPS Trackers
GPS tracking is a great tool for monitoring your teen’s driving and keeping them safe. It can provide alerts for speeding and harsh braking, along with crashes. In addition, you can set boundaries for the car and receive a notification if your teen ever leaves this boundary. With GPS teen tracking you can always be sure that your teen is driving safely, and if they’re not, you can take appropriate action to make sure they understand the importance of safe driving in the future.
Forward-Collision Warning (FCW)
FCW uses radars, lasers, and/or cameras to detect vehicles and objects in front of your car. As a vehicle equipped with FCW approaches an object, FCW senses a potential collision it issues a warning. Warnings are usually audible, visible, and/or even tactile. Paired with Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), if FCW senses that a crash is imminent, and does not act on the initial warning, it will trigger the AEB. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), AEB decreases rear-end crashes by 50%.
Lane-Departure Warning (LDW)
LDW uses a front-facing camera to track where your vehicle is in relation to the left and right lane markers. If the vehicle strays too far over to the left or right, the LDW system will issue a warning, so that the driver can correct their error.
The Impact Texas Teen Driver Program
Texas now requires teens to complete ITTD to get licensed. The ITTD program is a mandatory two-hour program made up of several videos aimed to teach new teen drivers about the dangers of distracted driving.
If you do not live in Texas and wish to further reinforce the dangers of distracted driving in your teen, there are many videos online addressing this issue, including one on ENDD.org (End Distracted Driving), you can access here. Aside from that, having honest and open conversations with your teen about distracted driving and its consequences is a good start towards making them safer on the road.
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