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November 4, 2009

B-SIDES: MyKey was dimes, pocketknives and screwdrivers

By Mark Bennett

You’d expect a car key this powerful to look like a Swiss army knife.

But as Megan Whatman held aloft the new MyKey — pronounced “my key” (not “Mikey” as in the Life cereal kid who’ll eat anything) — it looked rather nondescript. Seated behind the wheel of a 2010 Ford Focus, Whatman carefully described how a transponder chip inside the MyKey allows parents to impose a gamut of safety limits on their teenage driver. I sat in the passenger seat, listening and grinning at flashbacks of the first car I bought in the twilight of my teenage years.

My 1965 Plymouth Fury III had one distinct safety feature. It was as big as a pontoon boat. I bought it off a farmer in Clinton. He’d parked it in a cow pasture, next to a shed. I took along my brother, the businessman, to make sure I got a good deal. It worked. For $400, I drove away in a fully operational vehicle, and the farmer even threw in a second set of tires. (This car was so huge, all four extra tires fit inside the trunk.)

Fully operational, with one odd exception.

I eventually discovered that an ignition key was unnecessary. My Fury could be started with anything flat enough to fit into the keyhole — dimes, pocketknives and screwdrivers frequently served as my MyKey, then. (I only used the actual Plymouth key for special occasions.)

So, in retrospect, Ford’s new MyKey represented a significant advancement by the folks in Detroit since that old Fury rolled off the assembly line 45 years ago.

“This is just an opportunity for us to keep the next generation of drivers safer,” said Whatman, a spokeswoman for Ford. Based in Columbus, Ohio, she’d driven that 2010 Focus on a tour of Indiana news outlets and dealerships last week. In a state that finally, in July, joined a national trend of enacting stronger teen driving requirements, the MyKey ideas make sense.

Ford unveiled the device as a standard feature in its 2010 Focus and Taurus models. Within a year, the automaker expects to implement MyKey in many other Fords, Lincolns and Mercurys, Whatman said.

It will frustrate the kids, but also make their parents breathe a little easier. So far, the reaction isn’t too shocking. “Obviously, parents loved it,” Whatman said. “Teenagers, not so much.”

However, parents polled in a Harris Interactive Survey said that if they owned a vehicle with MyKey technology, they would allow their teens to drive more frequently. “[Teenagers] said if they could get more time behind the wheel, they’d warm up to it,” Whatman said.

With the MyKey system, the owner can program the car to have a limited top speed of 80 mph, and a maximum stereo volume of less than half of its actual capability. When a MyKey is inserted into the ignition, it activates default restrictions set by the owner (a.k.a. the parents). Here’s what it can do:

n If the driver fails to buckle the seat belt, the stereo will be muted. The instrument panel will flash the message, “Buckle Up to Unmute Radio.”

n An earlier low-fuel warning is activated. That signal flashes at 75 miles to empty, instead of 50 without MyKey.

n The maximum speed becomes 80 mph. Speed alert chimes will ring at 45, 55 and 65 mph. Then at 80, the acceleration simply tops out. (For the record, this feature would’ve been meaningless in my Fury. It couldn’t hit 80 rolling downhill with an anvil strapped to the bumper.)

n A traction control system prevents tires from spinning, as in squealing burnouts when the stoplights turn green.

n The stereo will only reach 44 percent of its factory-installed volume. After that, the dial spins fruitlessly and the Foo Fighters get no louder.

n Owners can track how far the car has been driven, and that mileage log can’t be altered by the driver.

Of course, you’re probably thinking, “Most kids become tech-savvy in kindergarten these days. Won’t they just crack the MyKey codes and reprogram the car?” The only way to reset the defaults, Whatman said, is with the master key — the MyKey — which, presumably, would stay with the parents.

Every technology, though, has its limits. “It’s not 100-percent foolproof,” she said. “It just encourages [teens] to have good, safe driving habits.”

That’s something we all could use, kids and adults, alike. Hopefully, Ford’s idea catches on. It’s worth a little frustration and repressed urges to go fast.

“If this saves just one life, I think it’s going to be deemed a success,” Whatman said.

She’s right.

Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.

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