Nanny products that watch over teen drivers are a touchy topic. A lot of people feel like they are invading their teen’s privacy and a lot of teens don’t like the idea of every road sin they commit being recorded for their parents to see. Dispite this, there seem to be an increase in products designed to monitor teen driving. There are obviously parents out there who understand the benefits of these products outweigh this assumption that you are violating their privacy.
In a perfect world there would be no need for Tiwi. Tiwi records speeding, hard braking, sharp turns, lack of seat belt and monitors your child’s location. In a perfect world teens would understand the inharent dangers of agressive driving and not take part. I feel that proper education and defensive driving clinics do a lot to help instill these beliefs into new drivers, but even if your teen has been through a suplemental driving program, you cannot ride with them at all times. You cannot always be there to see how they are driving and to give them advice when they make a mistake.
Tiwi combines technology similar to DriveCam with GPS and adds an online element. Parents can log in to the DriveSmart web site to see a report card of their driver and incidents. They can also receive text messages, phone calls or an email if their teen’s car leaves a predetermined geographical border. Whats better than this is that if the teen corrects the behavoir themselves they prevent the information from going to the web site. This changes behavior.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested Tiwi and found that is substantially reduced risky driving and crashes because of the behavior change Tiwi created in the new drivers. 18 year old Abby Anderson has had Tiwi in her car for the past 18 months. Originally opposed to the idea, she is now glad her parents added DriveSmart’s program to her car.
“In the end, I do think, if it weren’t for putting it in, I’d have a lot more speeding tickets right now,” she said.
Her parents also enjoy the peace of mind the program gives them:
“For me, the experience of having security of knowing that she’s okay or where she’s at was a benefit as a mom,” Abby’s mother Sabrina said.
Tiwi is a little on the expensive side at $450 plus $20 a month for service. However, if it prevents one crash or a ticket it more than pays for itself. If it saves your child’s life it is worth far more than its list price.
Save Our Teen Drivers 