Tomorrow my daughter will get behind the wheel for the first time. (Scout's honor, we never cheated and let her try it early.) She is so conscientious and careful. But I'm scared of other drivers! (When she got her permit, an elderly man doing the vision test next to her seemed unable to read, and an elderly woman taking the written test missed a third of the questions. Yikes.)
My daughter seems surprisingly low-key about driving. But she does think about the dangers. "The scariest thing is the fact that you're not only responsible for your life but others as well," she says. "You can hurt people." (In October "Teen Mom" star Jenelle Evans crashed into a light pole while her 2-year-old was in the car. Fortunately, he only suffered minor injuries.)
I mentioned that I was going to interview the maker of a GPS tracking device that lets parents see if their kids are speeding. What did my daughter think of it? "You should be able to trust your kid," she says. "If you didn't trust me, I wouldn't like it." Luckily, I do trust her – completely.
I raised this concern with Dana Shaut, a partner in iTrack365, which makes devices that monitor teens, spouses, seniors, and truck drivers. He noted that his products are more about safety than spying. They can help track seniors who get lost, not just catch misbehaving husbands or kids.
The devices cost $34.95 a month (for two years), plus a $65 installation fee. (A pro places the cell phone-size monitor behind the radio.) Purchasers can track location on the web or with an iPhone or Android app, and they can pull past reports to find out about speed and routing. (Another bonus: insurance companies tend to give discounts to families with the devices, since they help prevent theft, too.)
To prevent kids from thinking their parents lack trust in them, Shaut advocates being up front about the tracker. Teens end up loving the GPS since their parents end up feeling comfortable letting them take the car, he says. "It takes out that little stress. 'OK, I see they're on their way home.'"
Karen Springen
Teacher at Northwestern University
Contributer to LifeGoesStrong Blog
Original Article Credit
Automatic UpdatesThe location and speed of the vehicle is transmitted to the Web Site while the ignition is on at programmable intervals.