Just been listening to You and Yours on R4 and they have been looking at sales of 61 plate cars and interviewed a representative from ford about a new parental control for parents with teenage drivers i the family! MyKey is a technology that allows the parent to set a maximum speed, maximum ICE volume and will not allow the car to start without the seat belts being done up......................... Jeez 1984 and Big Brother are alive and kicking. My worry would be if the speed is limited, sometimes more speed can be useful for avoiding an accident I wouldn't consider it safe to set too low a speed on an inhibitor.
Ford are introducing it next year as an option on new Ka's and Fiestas 2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

Respect all the comments you made Tim regarding possible issues created by limiting speed and 'big-brother' watching us.

But being completely honest - I am petrified of my 2 young boys reaching an age where they become drivers. I was brought up around cars with my father being a mechanic - and being allowed to drive various old bangers around my dads yard from the age of 10 - numerous Morris Marinas, Hillman Avengers and Ford Escorts at mine and my mates disposal to practice driving in (actually perfecting the Screaming Handbreak Turn and Bodie and Doyle technique) - even had a Reliant Scimitar GTE for a few months before we killed it!

My point being - by the time I had reached an age to go anywhere near a public road legally, I had a good idea of how cars behave and passed the test first time easily....

...didn't mean I havent been involved in usual accidents - though not all my fault it was still quite a time before I realised the responsibilty I had with driving a car - when at the time my main preoccupation was attending as many social events on as large a scale as possible looking for who or you know what

Ive lost good freinds because of various accidents they have had on motorbikes and cars through the years and all at an age where its perfectly acceptable to be driving back from a night out in the early hours of the morning, car full of people down some dark country lane etc

Part of me hopes that the legal age for driving would be increased - It was rumoured a few years ago...or a curfew at what times the younger beginner drivers are allowed out.

I don't know what the ideal answer would be - and understand the concerns I have are perfectly natural for a father to have but I am still dreading the time they are old enough.

I can see both sides of the argument here, but have to say I am more in favour of Tim's comments about the 1984 Big Brother system where control and responsibility is physically removed from the driver of a vehicle.

The typical nanny-state approach of controlling by removal of options teaches the wrong lessons in my opinion. Far better to let people make the decision themselves but ensure they are fully aware and understand the consequences their decisions and actions may have and ensure they are held responsible if they do occur. You can't teach responsibility and mature decision making without allowing people to be exposed to it in the first place.

Molly Coddling kids and keeping them sheltered from responsibility for too long is (in my view) one of the main reasons this country is in the state it is. Too many people grow up expecting things to be handed to them on a plate and assuming that if things go wrong someone else must be to blame and therefore someone else must sort it out.

Instead of removing the option completely, why not go for the carrot vs stick approach? Install a monitoring system in the car that allows the parent to see if, and when, a car has been driven inappropriately without seat belts, over the speed limit, with heavy acceleration etc. That way the kid has the freedom to do so if he wishes, but does so with the understanding that he will likely be caught and receive some form of punishment with it. This system also therefore allows the facility to reward good driving behaviour as this would also be tracked.

What happens when the driver turns 21, gets in a car without "Nanny Control" and ends up causing a 100MPH pile up because the 4 years previously he's learned to drive in a car that wouldn't allow him to do it????

I do know what the ideal answer is http://www.under17-carclub.co.uk/index.php letters not necessarily in the right order

I got that for my 12 year old daughters xmas last year and she loved it , for a few weeks after her lessons i had to plank my keys ….

But agree with what Tim said