Nearly Three-quarters of Tech-savvy Ford Owners Don't Trust Their Kids

Once upon a time, a kid who’d been handed the keys to the family car only stopped accelerating when a stop sign or red light approached, the vehicle ran out of gas, a speed trap appeared in the distance, or they hit the governor.

Today, technology allows parents to pry into their kids’ lives like never before. Moms and dads can harass their offspring remotely with phone calls and text messages, keep tabs on their behavior via social media posts, and even follow their minute-by-minute travels via phone tracker apps. Childhood is dead and parents are the new KGB. With its MyKey system, Ford seized on the modern parent’s growing paranoia and offered these human helicopters the opportunity to lock their crossover into “sedate” mode before tossing junior the keys. Well, fob.

But how many people actually use the feature? As it turns out, plenty. But to use it, they first need to know it exists.

An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety survey of 1,500 parents of driving-age teens revealed there’s more than a few people who don’t realize the power they have over their kid’s night out.

By programming the vehicle’s top speed, audio volume limit, and ensuring the system’s Do Not Disturb feature remains operational, parents can be assured that Brayden or Caiden or Bryanna or Ashleigh’s evening more closely resembles Driving Miss Daisy than Days of Thunder. According to the survey, some 57 percent of MyKey-equipped Ford owners know about the feature. However, some 39 percent were clueless. There could be numerous reasons for this, from buyers not doing their homework before the purchase, to an untalkative or unknowledgeable salesperson who didn’t probe into their personal life to help seal that deal.

MyKey isn’t a new thing. It first appeared in Ford vehicles for the 2010 model year. Interestingly, the majority of respondents who did know about the feature claim they heard about it at the dealership. Ford employees working the floor might do well to tap into potentially profitable parental paranoia (sorry) and mention the peace of mind such a system brings.

Let’s be clear, though — just because parents know about the system, doesn’t mean they use it. Still, a great many do. Of the 57 percent of respondents who were hip to MyKey, 61 percent said they use it and 12 percent said they plan to. Assuming they’re not lying, that’s a 73 percent utilization rate. (The rest claim their kid doesn’t take the car out enough to warrant it, or that they’re sure their little angel would never behave in a reckless manner. Probably true!)

However, factor in the missing 43 percent and the actual utilization rate among parents of teens drops to 34.8 percent. Not as shiny a figure. If Ford can bring the parents who didn’t know MyKey existed on board, and that’s a lot of kids who’ll have to explain to their passengers why they can’t pull alongside Kayleigh’s RAV4 after she blasts past them on the interstate on the way to the party.

[Images: Ford Motor Company]