Ford lets parents set limits on speed and volume

Parents, do you think your kids are a bit too wild with the car? Well, Ford is introducing a new feature sometime in 2010 which will let parents set limits on the driving of their kids. There are only three things which can be set: Speed (boolean - 80mph max or off), Seatbelt warning (boolean - constantly or none), and volume (adjustable). My first thoughts on this were: okay, so this seems like kind of a good idea. I certainly know some terrible drivers, and this could help make the roads a little safer.

Except thinking about it further, I realized something which is a recurring trend in technical limitations: they only serve to restrict those who don't have any problems to begin with. Before I explain how I think this is, let me make an anaology. Did you ever notice those anti-piracy warnings on the beginning of movies? Now, go and show me one pirated movie which doesn't have that warning removed. What tends to be the case is that people apply limitations and warnings, only to be limiting and warning those who are already abiding by the rules we'd like them to follow.

Relating it back to the matter at hand, this is an optional feature, obviously. There's no government regulation requiring this, and there probably never will be because of the issues with backwards compatibility with older vehicles. So, essentially, we're leaving the option of limiting the vehicle's usage to the parents. However, most people who worry me as drivers are the kind of people who've got very relaxed parents to begin with. In general, the ones who'd have this restriction enabled are the ones who are already responsible drivers, good students, et cetra, while the ones whose parents wouldn't care are the ones who worry me the most.

Because I don't like to make generalizations about all teenagers, though, I'll give another way in which this system fails. The minds of engineers can never match the wits of ten thousand teenagers on the internet. Within a week of the release of this technology, I can almost guarentee it'll be broken. Once you've given someone physical access to a device, and given unlimited time, there is no force in the world which can stop someone from breaking into that device. It's just as true here as it is in the world of information security, where an 84 million dollar web-filter developed by the Australlian government was broken by a teenager in thirty minutes. In fact, even with well over a few million dollars in technology, it's widely known to most students in my school district, Lake Washington, that bypassing group policy restrictions and Websense internet filtering is as simple as removing the Cat5 cable during the login sequence.

So, I'm of the opinion that it's not worth the time to put restrictions on people; educating them is probably more effective. As for Ford, spend a little less time on stupid features like this and start working on getting your average MPG up.