A writer for American Way thinks his teenage daughter, who has already hit three solid objects with her car -- thankfully, no humans or other moving vehicles included -- would do better with a car that comes equipped with blind-spot/lane-change alert (which notifies the driver when another vehicle is approaching on each side), lane assist (which gently guides the car, if it begins to drift, back into the proper lane), backup camera display, backup alerts, pedestrian sensor, automatic braking, and a radio that won't come on unless everyone is buckled in. Said auto also has a computer program that monitors a teenage driver's performance, and can be activated without a teen's knowledge.
Suffice to say, the writer's article in the July 2016 issue of American Way, American Airlines' in-flight magazine, was blatant promotion disguised as a human-interest piece. The writer's is that all of this technology reduces distraction and makes the teen driving experience much safer not to mention less anxiety-arousing for parents.
I know teenagers fairly well. I was one once. I've lived with two. I've written a book about them and fielded many questions concerning them. Trust me, the writer is engaging in wishful thinking. The problem is that his article is likely to convince anxious parents that the smart-car is a wish come true. So, after concluding that the writer was giving downright dangerous advice, I decided to act as his foil.
In so doing, I will come straight to the point: Do not buy your teenager a smart car that has been supposedly teen-proofed. Said automobile is not likely to -- as the headline on the writer's article promised -- "steer young motorists away from dangerous distractions." More likely, a teenage driver will think that the automated protections built into said automobile mean he does not need to pay diligent attention to what is going on around him.
I can hear a typical teenager's shrill protest: "But you told me, so did that sales guy, that the car would tell me if I was about to hit something!" Assuming, that is, that said teen is still capable of protesting. Let's hope so.
What the sales guy didn't say was that there are no guarantees, that the system is not fail-safe or fool-proof. That the automatic lane correction feature, for example, doesn't work if the lane markers are indistinct. That the automatic braking device isn't going to stop you in time if you're following too closely to begin with. That the blind-spot detection technology isn't guaranteed to prevent a wreck if, say, a teenage driver and a driver two lanes away decide to change lanes at the same time. And so on.
I know how teenagers think. For one thing, they are highly prone to taking things literally. A parent who buys a smart car for a teenager isn't going to be able to explain that the car's technology is there to prevent a wreck and that the technology is no reason not to be paying diligent attention at all times. A teenager is going to hear "We bought this car for you because it has technology that will prevent an accident." That probably is not, by the way, what his parents said. That's what he heard his parents say.
So, he gets behind the wheel of his new smart car and something bad happens. Maybe he says to his friends, "Hey! Watch this!" And instead of being contrite, he's indignant. It's the car's fault! That's how teenagers think. Nothing is their fault.
So when it comes to buying a car for a teenager, buy stupid. The stupider the car, the smarter the teenage driver. And vice versa. Come to think of it, of every 10 stories I hear about teenage drivers wrecking cars, nine of them are new cars. Buy your teen a used car. At least 10 years old. Used cars are no fun to drive. That's the point.
John Rosemond is a family psychologist and the author of several books on rearing children. Write to him at The Leadership Parenting Institute, 1391-A E. Garrison Blvd., Gastonia, N.C. 28054; or see his website at
rosemond.com
Family on 08/17/2016