Ford MyKey Updated

Ford has just announced that its MyKey system, that allows parents to set up several limitations on a car, received a feature upgrade that will debut next year as standard equipment of Taurus and Explorer. The new MyKey function now lets parents block explicit satellite radio programming, thus preventing children from viewing specific types of television and Internet content while in their cars.

Furthermore, the updated system can limit the maximum allowed speed to any of the four predefined settings, 65, 70, 75 or 80 mph, and not to 80 mph as it happened before. The previous version of the feature only limited the speed at 80 mph, while releasing audio warnings at 45, 55 and 65 mph.

“Ford wants to give parents peace of mind that their kids are following practical household rules in the car,” says Graydon Reitz, director, Ford Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering. “Parents obviously like this type of feature, and many teens are okay with it when they hear parents may give them the keys more often if the car comes with a technology such as Ford’s MyKey.”

MyKey is already being offered on a number of North American models and Ford promises the upgraded system will quickly make it to multiple Ford and Lincoln vehicles for model year 2011.

“Like graduated licensing laws, MyKey helps parents set reasonable limits for teens as they’re building driving skills,” Reitz said. “We developed MyKey’s functions in such a way as to quickly spread it across multiple vehicle lines, giving us the ability to go mass market in the spirit of other Ford innovations such as SYNC.”

For a complete explanation on how the MyKey system works, check out the following link.