Parents Can Now Remotely Limit Their Teens' Car Speed With Tesla 'Parental Controls'; Can It Help Lessen Cases of Teenage Reckless Driving?

Tesla has been testing new features of their self-driving cars that would let parents limit acceleration and set a maximum speed when their child is at the wheel.

New Tesla Safety Feature

Many tech companies offer safety modes, which provide time limits or apps that block some online content within their streaming services and internet browsers. Now, electric car maker Tesla is joining the trend by offering parents a range of features to help keep young drivers safe.

A new feature referred to as 'Parental Controls' is being tested in car software released to employees earlier this month. It is currently available in a software update, version 2024.26.

Using the new feature, the parents can get an alert on their smartphone if Tesla is being driven by their child after a certain time. Parents can enable a PIN directly on the vehicle or on the Tesla mobile app, and drivers will not be able to turn off the control or change settings without re-entering the PIN.

According to a Tesla spokesperson, one in five drivers has a collision within the first year of their test. A high-profile Tesla accident that killed two teenagers in Florida back in May 2018 might also have promoted the new feature.

It was during this event that the 18-year-old Barrett Riley, together with Edgar Monserrat Martinez, was killed in a speeding Tesla 2014 Model S, which crashed near Fort Lauderdale Beach. The investigations clearly indicated Barrett was driving at 116 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone, as revealed by an investigation on this fatal accident from the National Transportation Safety Board.

A report concluded that the probable root cause of the accident was the loss of control due to excessive speed. Barrett asked Tesla employees to disable a speed limit feature installed by his father to prevent him from driving at more than 85 miles per hour.

The car manufacturer was only 1% to blame for the accident, which meant that compensation of only $100,000 needed to be paid to the family of the deceased.

Ending Reckless Driving

The head of the RAC Foundation, Steve Gooding, says that this step taken by Tesla is 'sensible.' He said that it makes a lot of sense for newly qualified young drivers to utilize technology already built into the car to enforce the wise counsel of parents.

Gooding also added that fully automated vehicles may one day remove human error from the road safety question. But until then, there is so much more a modern car could do to help drivers with its emergency braking, lane assist, and other intelligent speed advisory systems.

Experts are also hailing the tool as they believe that this feature will make it harder for young drivers to drive recklessly thus limiting traffic accidents in turn. They are in favor of safeguarding the young drivers and that technology holds huge potential in helping attain this goal.

According to Steve Cole of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, young people are still among the highest groups at risk while driving. Statistics show that the percentage rate of people killed or seriously injured under the age of 25 years is 64% more than among those over 25 years old.

As described by Dr. Chris Hingston, an ICU doctor at the University Hospital of Wales, car updates will make all the difference in road safety. He hopes other electric vehicles follow suit soon.