According to Tecnoride, Safeco Insurance is prototyping a black box which will rat out young drivers who run afoul of their parents driving rules. Safeco's "Safety Beacon" contains a GPS unit to clock speed and location, and a phone system to alert concerned parents. If the driver operates the car outside of several preset boundaries, the gadget can trigger an email notification to parents, along with a text message to the offending party. An Instant Locate feature allows parents to find a Beacon-equipped car (via phone or the ‘net), but it’s “not a breadcrumb-tracking device”. Safeco spokesperson Jim Havens says Beta tests indicate that teens become "better drivers" and transgressions "quickly fall off.” So, can parents expect lower insurance rates as an incentive to sign-up for a $15 a month subscription? “Lower rates, like raising rates, is typically the province of state insurance departments” says Havens. As 007 would say, you must be joking.
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the gadget can trigger an email notification to parents, along with a text message to the offending party. Oh boy. Not only will we have teenagers driving recklessly, but now they'll also be reading a text message telling them they're driving recklessly while they're driving recklessly! Combine this with an in-car camera and show your teenager you really don't trust him or her.
Funny, my thought exactly when I read that line.
Seconded. Let’s pass on the text message, shall we? How about an automated text message to the local PD reporting grand theft auto, instead?
I would be an advocate of vehicular Darwinism, if it were not for all of the collateral damage.
This will only work to slowly move the burden of driving to kids whose cars don’t tattle.
Comedian,
Great point. But each parent individually has incentive to install this device, because it would force their kids to use someone else’s car. This way their kid won’t be the driver at fault, and it won’t hit their insurance.
Of course, it would also be pushing kids to take less safe cars, assuming only those parents with recent, safe cars install. Not good.
Of course, any old beater that a kid buys to fix up probably wouldn’t qualify for this program (and how, exactly, would the parent in question get the car away from the kid long enough to take it to the electronics shop to have the electronic tattletale installed?)
Which means that the kinds of vehicles that are most in need of this kind of “surveillance” are also the ones least likely to actually have it.
Off topic, but I haven’t seen hair that big since at least 1992.
The family drive a Hyundai, let her wreck it, just hope you have GAP!
pfingst: Off topic, but I haven’t seen hair that big since at least 1992.
She does have big hair. :-) BTW: No poodles were harmed in the making of this news blog. ;-)
Actually, having a daughter, I would prefer a back-seat heat detector alarm.
How about we just ban bad parents from having children.. teach your kids to be responsible and resist peer pressure and you won’t have to use this BS device.
A similar device has been available at aftermarket car audio dealers under the Viper/Clifford/Hornet brands of Directed Electronics. I would not be surprised if Safeco sources the unit from Directed.
But, in reality, all you can do is hope you did a good job raising your children. My father installed a similar system in me by stating “Son, I know about cars. And I’ll know if you have been beating on yours. And I’ll take the damn keys away.” I still drive like an egg is under the accelerator on a daily basis…
I wonder if she’s 18. She’d be cute once you get underneath that mane. I’d get in the backseat of that Hyundai anywhere (under the speed limit).