Helping to Preserve Family Values

Parents with Teen Drivers

By monitoring the whole family’s driving performance, CarChip can help encourage teens to drive safely — and it may just help save your teen’s life. In the U.S., many states have set up graduated licensing programs for teen drivers. Newly licensed drivers are typically allowed to drive unsupervised only during daytime hours, and must remain free of at-fault accidents for at least twelve consecutive months before advancing to a full unrestricted license. Even if you live in a state without these restrictions, CarChip can help you set up your own graduated licensing program. You could, for example, designate a minimum number of driving hours, along with specific performance requirements, before you allow your teen to advance to the next level.

With CarChip, you’ll have all the information you need, just a mouse-click away. Together, you and your teen can view the speed, distance, accelerations, and decelerations for each trip, with each quick start and hard braking highlighted in red. As your teen grows in experience, skills, and maturity, you can lift restrictions as a reward for good driving, or reinstate them if you think that he or she needs a little more practice. And, just in case your teen’s tempted to sneak in a few rides without CarChip, the unit will log the date and time every time it is disconnected.

But CarChip isn’t just for teens. It can provide valuable feedback for both new and experienced drivers. At first, Lisa’s son protested when his mom put a CarChip in the family car. His protests vanished, though, when CarChip revealed that he was at times a better driver than his dad! In fact, motor vehicle crashes are not just the number one cause of death for teens, they are also the number one cause of death for all individuals, aged 34 or younger*.

* WISQARS Leading Cause of Death Reports, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus10.html.