Oakville, Ontario – Ford has announced an innovative new technology, MyKey, designed to help parents encourage their teenagers to drive safer and more fuel efficiently, and increase safety belt usage. The feature will debut as standard equipment on the 2010 Focus and will quickly become standard on many other Ford and Lincoln models.
The feature allows owners to program a key that can limit the vehicle’s top speed and audio volume. It also encourages safety belt use, provides earlier low-fuel warnings, and can be programmed to sound chimes at 72, 88 and 106 km/h.
“Ford not only offers industry-leading crash protection and crash avoidance systems, we are also committed to developing new technologies such as MyKey that encourage safer driving behaviour,” said Susan Cischke, Ford group vice-president of Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering. “MyKey can help promote safer driving, particularly among teens, by encouraging seatbelt use, limiting speed and reducing distractions.”
A poll conducted by Harris Interactive Survey for Ford found that about 50 per cent of those who would consider purchasing MyKey also said they would allow their children to use the family vehicle more often if it were equipped with the new technology. More than half of parents surveyed worry that their teenage children are driving at unsafe speeds, talking on hand-held cell phones or texting while driving, or otherwise driving distracted.
The MyKey system allows the parent to program any key through the vehicle message center, which updates the SecuriLock passive anti-theft system. When the MyKey is inserted into the ignition, the system reads the transponder chip in the key and immediately identifies the MyKey code, which enables certain default driving modes, including Persistent Beltminder, an earlier low-fuel warning, and the inability to deactivate features such as Park Aid, Blind Spot Information System, and the traction control. The key allows for a limited top speed of 129 km/h, and limited audio volume to 44 per cent of the total volume.
