It is a leap of faith from many parents when they hand over their car keys to their teenage son. This is especially because the chances of the car being crashed are 4 times more in case of teens compared to adults. There are in excess of 3000 fatalities every year which makes car crashes one of the biggest causes for the death of teens between the ages of 15 – 19. However, one insurance company has discovered that cameras mounted inside the vehicle could reduce risky behaviour during driving by a substantial 70%, saving a few lives in the process too.
A Wisconsin based insurance provider, American Family, has offered the service and cameras since 2007 as part of the Teen Safe Driver Program. This program pays for the cost of the cameras and their installation, the monthly service fee and also offers discounts on the auto insurance costs to the families that enrol for this policy. These installed cameras record about 20 seconds of video inside and outside the vehicle. Aggressive driving habits like a drastic swerving or sudden braking will trigger the cameras to save the recording and send an alert to the parents who can start watching the video on the website of DriveCam, which is the manufacturer of the system. DriveCam more or less acts like a mentor for teen drivers alerting parents to risky driving habits.
DriveCame handles the whole process of video recording and notification instead of the insurance company. The accident video though isn’t used to settle the claims for accidents. Privacy on the other hand is a major trade-off that some parents willingly accept in return for safety of their teenage son or daughter. While it encourages the teens to stay straight and slow at all times, naughty driving alerts the parents by providing actual evidence and examples so that the teenagers can be taught the right behaviour and better driving skills and habits too.
In fact electronic oversight is playing a larger and larger role these days. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, requires automakers to provide electronic recording devices in all new vehicles. This will record all the data during and after car crashes. This could be implemented in full force by 2013 which is why individuals will eventually have to get used to oversight from electronic devices. Tiwi is another tracking device integrated in vehicles to monitor location, speed signs, speed and usage of speed belt, coaching the driver constantly.
