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The new system Ford MyKey will help teenagers to drive safely

MyKey ™, another innovation of the company which has launched SYNC ®, henceforth allows parents to limit the speed of the vehicle and the volume of the audio chain and thereby encourage teens to drive more safely, while improving the fuel economy.

A Harris Interactive poll has shown that many parents allow teens to drive more often if their vehicle was equipped with MyKey, helping young drivers increase their experience in road safety.

MyKey will debut next year as standard equipment in the Focus 2010 and will be available soon in many other models Ford, Lincoln and Mercury.      

Ford Canada launches a new innovative technology - MyKey - designed to help parents motivate their teens to drive more safely and more energy efficient way, while increasing the use of seat belts. The MyKey feature that will debut next year as standard equipment in the Focus 2010 and will be available soon in many other models Ford, Lincoln and Mercury allows owners to program a key that can limit the speed of tip and the volume of the audio chain of the vehicle. The key MyKey also encourages safety belt usage, provides early warning of low fuel and can even be programmed to sound chimes at speeds of 72, 88 and 106 km / h (45, 55 and 65 mi / h).

According to Susan Cischke, vice-president of the group, Durability, Environment and Safety Engineering "Ford not only offers protection systems in case of accident and collision prevention in mind the industry, the company is also committed to develop new technologies such as MyKey that encourage safer driving. MyKey can promote safe driving, particularly among teens, by encouraging the use of seat belts and by reducing speed and distractions. "

According to the results of a recent Harris Interactive poll done for Ford, MyKey pleases parents of teen drivers, including 75 percent who like the device speed reduction, 72 percent who like the more insistent reminder seatbelt Security and 63 percent who like the limitation of the volume of the audio chain. About 50 percent of people who would consider purchasing MyKey also said they would allow their children to use the family vehicle more often if it was equipped with this new technology. More time passes and driving helps adolescents increase their driving experience in a situation more framed. It is a perfect complement to the laws governing the conduct by steps that give young drivers more driving freedom has as they age. More than half of the parents interviewed are worried that their teenagers drive too fast, use their laptop or cell phone texting while driving; in other words, when distracted driving. Over a third of interviewed parents also worry that their teens do not always buckle their seat belts while driving.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), teens are more prone to take risks - such as speeding - a contributing factor in 30 percent of all fatal accidents. Adolescents are also less likely to wear their seat belts than older drivers. Adolescents probes Harris says they were mostly in favor of MyKey system if it actually gave them more opportunities to lead. Initially, 67 percent of teens interviewed said they were not in favor of MyKey. However, if MyKey increased their driving privileges, only 36 percent of teens still were not favorable to this technology.

According to Jim Buczkowski, director, Engineering of electrical and electronic systems - the same team that developed SYNC in partnership with Microsoft: "We further develop an existing proven technology - SecuriLock immobilizer - adding simple updates to its software for a new characteristic that we will be appreciated by our clients. We also developed MyKey system functions in a way that it can be incorporated quickly into multiple ranges of vehicles, allowing us to mass produce, in the spirit of other Ford innovations such as belts Security, stability control and SYNC. "

Turnkey

The MyKey system allows parents to program any key does what through the message center of the vehicle which also offers a day SecuriLock immobilizer. When the key MyKey is inserted into the starter, the system interrogates the transponder chip in the key and immediately recognizes the MyKey code, which activates certain default driving modes, including:

The Minder seat belts BeltMinderMC tougher with mute the audio chain. In general, the system seatbelt safety Ford triggers an alarm chime for 6 seconds every minute, and for five minutes. With MyKey, the chime sounds BeltMinder at regular intervals and audio chain works muted until the safety belt is fastened. A message indicates fastening the seat belts to listen to the audio channel also appears on the message center in the dash. 

An early warning of low fuel. Instead of preventing the driver that the fuel level is 80 km (50 mi) of the dry down, MyKey rather warns the 120 km (75 mi). 

If MyKey is in the starter, the features like park assist and blind spot warning detection (BLISMC) with Cross Traffic Alert can not be deactivated.

Other features MyKey can be programmed through the setup menu of the message center:

The top speed limited to 129 km / h (80 km / h).

Traction control - which limits wheel spin - can not be disabled.

Audio volume of the string is limited to 44 percent of its maximum.

A warning chime sounds speed was 72, 88 and 105 km / h (45, 55 and 65 mi / h).

Using MyKey to show teens to avoid the speeding can also provide another advantage, or better fuel economy. Ford research has shown that driving 88 km / h (55 mi / h) instead of 105 km / h (65 mi / h) consumes 15 percent less fuel. Also adopt efficient driving habits, such as avoidance of fast starts and excessive idling can improve the fuel economy of more than 50 percent.

About the Survey Harris Interactive

The survey of 347 parents of adolescents was done online in the United States by Harris Interactive from 1 to 5 August. The survey of 249 teen drivers was made online in the United States from September 17 to 22. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. The full methodology is available.

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