Parents are worried about their children. We guess it’s in the DNA. Regardless the background, the country of origin, whatever influences there might be, parents are worried about their kids.
That comes to teens who are driving cars. In this case, and rightfully so, parents are obsessed with the idea of assuring that their kids are safe at all times. That’s probably why a monitoring system that checks to see how your teenage son or daughter is driving is getting a lot of attention. The system includes a video camera installed in plain view of the teen driver that records what’s happening in the car as well as what is happening right outside the windshield. When the vehicle makes a sudden move, the camera wirelessly transmits a digital recording to a central monitoring station where it is analyzed and then passed on via e-mail to parents within 24 hours. The system is real and it is available from a company called DriveCam, Inc. Besides providing what has been described, DriveCam also sends a weekly report rating the teen driver’s driving and safety skills.
The DriveCam camera costs $900 a year and there is also a one year monitoring contract involved. Insurance companies have been known to pay for this.
A need for such systems have arisen because more and more teenagers are sitting behind the wheel of autos that are traveling roads and highways. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 13 million drivers between the age of 15 and 20 on the road in 2006. And in 2006 3,490 young drivers were killed in auto accidents.
Other companies that offer a similar system as the one supplied by DriveCam include BrickHouse Security and Colorado based OBS, a mobile surveillance company, and Alltrack USA.
Some might say that this is an invasion into the privacy of the teen driver. But when safety is concerned, both for the teen driver and everyone else on the road that the teen driver could get involved in a traffic accident, then maybe safety should trump privacy. At least, in this case.
Our take? Could there be a teen who enlists the help of the ACLU to get mom and dad to stop trailing him? Probably.
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