Chevrolet introduced its Teen Driver System with the current Chevrolet Malibu a few years ago, but the technology has quickly spread to eight additional vehicles—Bolt EV, Camaro, Colorado, Cruze, Silverado, Equinox, Suburban and Tahoe.
Its intent is to keep teen drivers safer behind the wheel and encourage proper driving habits to curb aggressive driving and other potentially harmful behaviors behind the wheel. Forbes recently put the system to the test with an 18-year-old driver to see if the system truly did institute positive change.
The young driver was handed the keys to a 2017 Chevrolet Cruze hatchback with the Teen Driver System and drove the car daily for one week. Instantly, the young driver said the effects were noticeable.
“I found myself driving a little bit more cautiously than normal because I knew I was being monitored and I knew there was a report card being logged,” he said.
Teen Driver monitors a multitude of areas when a designated key is used to operate the vehicle. Parents can then produce a “report card” following a teen’s driving excursion. The report card will highlight things such as over speed warnings, distance traveled, wide open throttle instances, forward collision alerts, traction and stability control and ABS utilization and tailgating alerts.
The system encourages proper driving habits by locking out radio controls until all seatbelts are fastened, it locks out the ability to disable various active safety features, radio volume can be preset and audible speed warning may be implemented.
In this test, the teen driver logged 21 tailgate alerts during a 44-mile drive. When the system detects the car is following too closely, it sounds an audible beeping tone.
“There was a warning would come up each time I was tailgating, and it would flash, beep and get angry at me… this actually encouraged me to increase my distance from the car in front from that point forward,” he explained. “After seven or eight of them happened in the first two or three days, you start to become more aware… you obviously don’t want the beep to continue. I became aware of the distance, and I would then increase the gap between cars and myself.”
Like Pavlov’s experiment, the tailgate alerts dropped to zero shortly after the experience.
It can be concluded the system certainly does encourage good behavior, but the Teen Driver System should also be used in conjunction with proper learning experience behind the wheel and a dose of good judgment.
Comments
What ever happened to the days where you could actually trust your teenager when they ask if they could use your car to go out with their friends or significant other on a date . Now we can track their movements on our cell phones and in our cars . I just find this intrusive and shows a lack of trust with todays youth .
If you are raising your kids right you don’t need all of this technology , if you loan your car to your kid and tell them to be home at a certain time and they show up late then no car for you for a while .
I can see it possibly being a safety thing but this Driver System just shows a lack of trust with your teenage driver .
It’s sad that we have to resort to this kind of technology .
All your comments are good if you, as a parent, are teaching your teen the correct way to drive all the time. Do you really have that free time every day? When I was a teen, we had only one car in the family and I was the designated driver on the return trips, so I was under my Dad’s supervision 100%. Do you do the same? I bet you don’t so if the car can do it for you, then it is all much better.
It’s just a tool at the end of the day. Nowhere does it says “you must use this technology” if a teen is in the driver’s seat.
If you trust your kids enough, let them have at it – don’t use it.
The problem is well, you couldn’t REALLY trust them, you just DID trust them.
And many of them died in DUIs. Many of them died in hill jumps. Many of them totalled their car street racing at a light.
But you trusted them, right?
When I think back to when I was a teen, I knew plenty of people- and myself- who street raced at traffic lights. I knew plenty of kids who drove like idiots and often ended up in accidents. I had 2 friends killed when they were being stupid hill jumping.
You did trust them, but you also just accepted some would die and many would get in an accident.
This technology should help minimize those deaths and minimize those accidents. I can’t tell you a single kid I knew from age 16-21 who drove responsibly all the time.
So I think one of the reasons I wouldn’t want to just “trust” them is because I was a teen, and I had friends which were teens, and while trust (and prayer) was the only option, today you have tech too, to help your kid being responsible.
I sell cars for a living and have to go along on test drives. I have noticed a propensity for drivers, especially young female drivers to follow too closely, or speed. I also find they are more prone to pay less attention to the road and surrounding traffic than they do to their fellow passengers. While I don’t particularly like invasive technologies, especially that of autonomous vehicles, in this case the Teen Driver system may just help develop safer driving habits among younger drivers. It might just also help older drivers correct bad habits learned over the years.
Umm…. those days never existed. I’m sure many teens are responsible and can be trusted, but the teen driver system is not designed for the teens who aren’t likely to get into an accident or cause one. I know how I was as a teen driver and my dad has told many stories about how he was as a kid.
This is for young inexperienced drivers to help them develop good habits. Not all teens will needs this, but statistics and accident trends show that it has value.
Everybody’s life experience is different . This system is like having a babysitter in the car when a teenager is driving . Does it do some good , I’m sure it does , will it stop DUI’s and speeding from a stop light , no .
And yes we do have the time to teach our kids to be defensive drivers because of fools that do not pay attention when they are behind the wheel .
No cell phones are allowed in the car , but have OnStar in case of an emergency . Unfortunatly the days of trusting your kids DO Exist and until something changes that it will be dealt with at the time .
When I was in High school there was not one kid that died from a DUI , sure we drank while driving anyone who says differently would be lying . Most all of us had our own cars , because we had jobs after school and saved up our cash to buy one . So we took pride in our cars because we worked to buy one , it wasn’t given to us from our parents .
I do believe it is a generational thing , if having this system in your vehicle makes you feel better , cool .
It’s like this new system in some of GM’s cars that will alert you that you have a child in the back seat , I hope it will save lives but not everyone needs such a system .
That is one thing that is truly sad these days , people don’t trust anyone anymore .
Like I said I don’t need such an alert to track the driving habits of our teen , it’s sad that some families DO !