Forty per cent of young Australian drivers admit to speeding or driving while distracted, according to new research from Ford and NRMA Motoring & Services.
AUSTRALIAN PARENTS rank speeding as their number one concern when it comes to young drivers, according to research released by Ford Australia and NRMA Motoring & Services. According to the research, driving distracted and speeding were the two most risky behaviours the young drivers studied admitted to.
The survey of 400 parents and 432 young people (19-25) from across Australia was conducted by Galaxy Research to gain insight into the concerns and behaviour of parents and young drivers, said Ford in a statement.
The research revealed that 61% of parents surveyed were concerned about their children driving distracted. And the concerns are justified with almost 40% of young drivers admitting to driving while distracted.
“Ensuring the safety of drivers on our roads is the key priority for the NRMA. We hope this research by Ford supported by NRMA helps to raise this important discussion with parents and young drivers to help curb unnecessary incidents,” said Jack Haley, NRMA spokesperson.
While the research was used to highlight the concerns of parents and the behaviour of young drivers, Ford has used the data to announce the roll-out of its MyKey technology which allows parents to set speed alerts and limit the vehicle’s top speed and audio volume.
Ford’s MyKey debuted in Australia on the 2013 Ford Fiesta ST and will now be rolled out through the entire Fiesta (available now across the Fiesta range), Focus, Modeo and Mustang range throughout 2014 and 2015. Ford says, its research has seen it reduce the maximum speed limit setting on MyKey from 140km/h down to lower limits, including 100-110km/h.
MyKey is able to:
- Limit the vehicle’s top speed to help reduce excessive speeding;
- Limit the audio volume to help reduce driver distraction;
- Set speed alerts to help remind drivers of speed limits;
- Prevent the audio system from activating until the front-seat passengers fasten their seatbelts to help encourage seatbelt use; and
- Raise the low fuel warning to 140km distance to empty to help prevent young drivers from becoming stranded due to a low fuel situation.
Given ‘speeding’ now is driving 2kph over the posted signage, I think the driving whilst distracted woudl be far more the significant issue…..
Absolutely Douglas, and there was a report out of America yesterday that looked into all of the hands-free technologies in US cars (2013 models admittedly) and found that using the hands-free tech to either talk on the phone or change albums on portable music players, or narrate a text message – really not sure why you’d need to do that – was ridiculously distracting. Instead of adding ‘connected’ technology to new cars maybe we should be removing it? Cheers, Isaac (editor).
Absolutely Douglas, and there was a report out of America recently that looked into all of the hands-free technologies in US cars (2013 models admittedly) and found that using the hands-free tech to either talk on the phone or change albums on portable music players, or narrate a text message – really not sure why you’d need to do that – was ridiculously distracting. Instead of adding ‘connected’ technology to new cars maybe we should be removing it? Cheers, Isaac (editor).