Teens and Cars: Four Tech Tools to Make Your Teen a Safer Driver
Posted on: 24 June 2015
Teens and driving can be a deadly combination, and in fact, a third of teens crash within their first year of driving. Convincing these kids who often think they are invincible to drive more safely can be difficult. However, if you mix the message with technology (something most teens love), you may make a bigger impact.
Here are four tech tools to help teens stay safer on the road:
Hands-Free Car Kit
Also called a Bluetooth kit, a hands-free car kit connects any Bluetooth device to your teen's car radio. This allows your teen to be able to talk on the phone while driving, but the conversation doesn't require their hands, helping to keep it safe.
Hands-free car kits don't just work on phone conversations, they can also be used to connect music to the stereo or anything else streaming through a Bluetooth enabled device.
Anti-Texting Apps
If your teen is an avid texter, he or she may eventually be tempted to pick up his or her phone while driving to read or write a text. Although illegal, this practice still happens, especially with teens who always want to know what's going on. You can help your teen avoid temptation by installing an anti-texting app on his or her mobile phone.
A range of apps are available including ones that block texts while your child is driving and even send you a message if your teen turns off the block. Other apps read texts aloud as they come in so your child can hear what's happening without picking up their phone. With the latter, you can connect the mobile to the hands-free car kit so the texts are broadcast over the car's sound system.
GPS Tracking Device
If you want the joys of feeling like a spy while also keeping your kid safer on the road, install a GPS teen tracking device on your teen's car.
These devices track where the car travels and how fast it goes along the way. There are a range of options, from GPS-enabled devices that connect to the car's diagnostic system to ones that get downloaded on your teen's mobile phone.
Driving Simulator
To give your teen extra practice before he or she starts driving for real, see if you can find a simulator to help your teen learn to drive. Driving simulators give teens practice without actually putting them behind the wheel, and a new generation of simulators shows exactly how distracting driving can be by tempting teens with texts, teasing them with cop cars driving past and creating other distractions.
For more information, contact a local auto accessory company like Gold Coast Car Audio.
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