New Gadgets to Monitor Teen Driving

Handing your teenager the keys to the car can be the thing that nightmares are made of, especially if they’re taking the car out on their own. However, parents today have it much easier than parents did even ten years ago. Any parent with the slightest amount of technology know-how can easily keep track of their teen driver. Here are five gadgets that can make you feel better about handing your teen the keys:

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1. GPS Watches

While it’s not generally recommended that parents keep track of their teenagers without their teens’ knowledge, GPS watches make a fantastic spy device. Find a watch or pedometer that comes with a GPS, and turn it on and put it under the passenger seat. When your teen comes home, simply take the watch out of the car and take a look at how many miles they’ve driven.

2. Black Box

Similar to the technology used for airplanes, black boxes for cars can tell you exactly how far your teen has driven, how fast they’ve gone and other pertinent driving details. The black box lets you set an alarm to notify you of certain situations, such as your teen driving too far away or too fast. You can purchase a black box from Alltrack USA or Road Safety International.

3. Dash Cam

A company called DriveCam offers a small, dashboard-mounted camera that you can install in your vehicle to monitor your teen’s driving. The camera records every risky move made by your teen, including lane-changes, speeding, and hard-braking. The video is uploaded to a safety panel of experts who then provide parents with a report and possible solutions to your teen’s bad driving habits. Some insurance companies offer this service as part of teen driving programs, but you can also purchase the service yourself for just under $900.

4. Speedbump

Speedbump is an Android app that alerts parents when their teen is going faster than a determined speed. For instance, if you want your child to go no faster than 50 mph, the app will send an alert as soon as your child hits 51 mph. Speeds can be determined and set depending on where your child will be driving. The app has options for residential, secondary, and highway speeds, allowing parents to set different allowable speeds for one trip, depending on the route that will be taken.

5. CarCheckup

CarCheckup provides subscribers with a device that plugs into an area under the steering wheel and automatically records when the car is being driven. Parents can remove the device from the car and plug it into their computer, downloading a day’s, week’ or month’s worth of data. Parents can view summaries and graphs that provide a detailed report of their teen’s driving habits. High speed, distance traveled, extreme braking and average speed are all viewable as often as the subscriber chooses to upload the data.

While your teen may think that recording their driving is an invasion of privacy, don’t let your teen talk you out of monitoring their driving habits. There is no better way to make sure that they are driving safely than using one of these five gadgets. If you find that your teen is driving unsafely, take the information and use it as an opportunity to teach them how to drive more responsibly.

Author Bio:- Anna Wright blogs about how to keep teen drivers safe. If you are looking for inexpensive car insurance for your teen driver, Anna recommends giving www.carinsurance.org.uk a try.