Ford Fiesta 2012 with parental controls

cyclopath2001

There's an interesting article in The Register on the Ford Fiesta 2012, including parental control options

MyKey provides a degree of speed limitation - warnings can be set to annoy the driver at 70, 90 or 100kph (45, 55 and 65mph) - and can be set to disable the stereo if the youngster doesn't don a seatbelt. Other driver safety technologes can be mandated too.

Is this a sales gimmick or could it catch on?

Could this be adapted as a control measure for repeat speeding offenders, instead of hiking their insurance or taking away their licences? i.e. punish speeders by speed-restricting their cars?

Owen

[waits for the first court case against Ford because a son/daughter was killed overtaking when the car hit it's limit and took too long at the wrong side of the road]

Dilbert75

Owen wrote: »

[waits for the first court case against Ford because a son/daughter was killed overtaking when the car hit it's limit and took too long at the wrong side of the road]

In which case the parent who enabled it would be to blame.

I think the option of powering off the stereo under certain circumstances is a novel and effective idea.

AugustusMinimus

Potentially dangerous thing to do as Owen has said.

A constant annoying sound when above a certain speed wouldn't be a bad idea though.

paulhealy1991

Owen wrote: »

[waits for the first court case against Ford because a son/daughter was killed overtaking when the car hit it's limit and took too long at the wrong side of the road]

it says warnings can be set to annoy the driver at 70, 90 or 100kph so i take it that it wont stop them from going over these limits for short time periods like over taking

Dartz

Owen wrote: »

[waits for the first court case against Ford because a son/daughter was killed overtaking when the car hit it's limit and took too long at the wrong side of the road]

I agree completely.

I'm just waiting for someone to swan on in with 'If he couldn't make the overtake without speeding, then he shouldn't have tried in the first place'...

cyclopath2001

paulhealy1991 wrote: »

it says warnings can be set to annoy the driver at 70, 90 or 100kph so i take it that it wont stop them from going over these limits for short time periods like over taking

It can restrict speed to 80mph and give annoying warnings at lower speeds, presumably linked to GPS data.

This could open up the way for the car to perform differently depending on which key is used. A kind of dynamic 'chipping'. So, if it's the 'kiddie' key, the car's acceleration and max speed could be dumbed down. Maybe the parents could extract the trip data from the onboard computer...the possibilities are interesting.

si_guru

Of course the young lads/laddettes who drive like idiots all drive 2012 Fiestas.

pippip

Owen wrote: »

[waits for the first court case against Ford because a son/daughter was killed overtaking when the car hit it's limit and took too long at the wrong side of the road]

That is just stupid. Its like saying you could sue the car manufacturer for not making a car fast enough to preform the overtake. It's all down to the driver, never going to go further than that in such a situation.

Voodoomelon

Nothing new there, you can set a warning on my year 2000 to bong and give a visual warning at a preset speed, hardly a parental feature?

I don't see the logic, drive slower in faster moving traffic causing hassle because you have kids on board?

TestTransmission

Owen wrote: »

[waits for the first court case against Ford because a son/daughter was killed overtaking when the car hit it's limit and took too long at the wrong side of the road]

Surely the same could be said for someone crashing a car at 120mph,why would manufacturers design a car capable of that speed for sale in a market where the top speed you can drive is 70mph

vintagevrs

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Nothing new there, you can set a warning on my year 2000 to bong and give a visual warning at a preset speed, hardly a parental feature?

I don't see the logic, drive slower in faster moving traffic causing hassle because you have kids on board?

A lot of cars have speed limiters and alarms that can be preset when a certain speed is reached. However, this is the first I have heard of relating these features to a particular key. Sounds like a clever idea to help remove the temptation for younger drivers to see what their parents car can do.

Voodoomelon

Ah, now I didn't see it from that angle.

Not sure how you work it though, presumably if you know your teenager will only be in town you can set it to a 60kph limit. However for any other instance you'd be hesitant to set it lower than 100kph, in which case its kinda pointless.

barura

Any teenager worth their salt would figure out how to disable it anyways.

Or you know, buy there own car sans the bullshít...

It's secretly a ploy to encourage more car sales I tell ya!

bladebrew

it sounds pointless to be honest, as mentioned not many teenagers start driving in a brand new fiesta,
and if you set a max speed limit of say 100km/h they can still speed on every other bit of road in towns, etc,
if it was linked to gps and set the speed limit according to where the car was that may be worth it,
im not even sure the technology exists to do that though!

edit: i do remember reading about a car (may have been a new a6) that knows when it crosses the channel from england to france and automatically switches the headlights over, that is bloody genius!

barura

The Nissan GTR does the speed limit via GPS thing.

delly

Teenager swaps key before heading out and swaps back when returned, daddy would be none the wiser.

AugustusMinimus

delly wrote: »

Teenager swaps key before heading out and swaps back when returned, daddy would be none the wiser.

Daddy feels teenagers hand in his pocket.

Daddy wonders why his kid is so strange.

MugMugs

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

delly wrote: »

Teenager swaps key before heading out and swaps back when returned, daddy would be none the wiser.

Daddy feels teenagers hand in his pocket.

Daddy wonders why his kid is so strange.

Ehhhh.

Great idea though. Ford are coming out with lots of quirky ideas lately.