Slated to debut on April 1st at the New York Auto Show and to be available at the end of 2015, the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu will also debut an all-new feature for GM vehicles – Teen Driver. No points are awarded to those that thought "wasn't Ford's MyKey first?"
When all is said and done, we all know that it doesn't really matter which came first, "the chicken or the egg," but what the all-new Teen Driver safety technology is bringing to the table.
Considering that the IIHS rated the fatal crash rate per mile driven for 16 to 19-year-olds nearly three times the rate for drivers ages 20 and over, General Motors' Teen Driver feature is paramount for parents in this day and age.
On the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu, the Teen Driver suite will keep the following parameters in check: distance driven, maximum speed traveled, over-speed warnings issued, stability control events, antilock brake events, forward collision alerts (if equipped) and forward collision braking events (if equipped).
This gizmo is like a black box for parents that hand the car keys to their teenage children
To enable the feature, a parent has to create a PIN in the settings menu of the Chevrolet MyLink infotainment system, allowing the registration of a teen's key fob. Furthermore, when turned on, the Teen Driver system automatically activates vital driving aids such as the stability control and traction control.
Additionally, parents can select a maximum top speed of between 40 to 75 mph (120 km/h).
“We developed this system so parents could use it as a teaching tool with their kids – they can discuss and reinforce safe driving habits,” declared GM engineer MaryAnn Beebe, a mother of two outside office hours.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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