My Fabulous Life

My MamaKey System

While at Foward With Ford in Michigan last month, we learned more about Ford Technology and many of the newest technology in Ford vehicles blew my mind!  MyKey is an innovative system in select Ford vehicles that can help give parents peace of mind – it’s almost like having a parent in the car with a teenager without the embarrassing clothing or (un)witty commentary.  Features of Ford’s MyKey Technology include an audio system that will not work until seatbelts are buckled (it’s just no fun driving in silence!) and once the audio system is in use, a maximum volume level can be set.  Have you ever wondered how some kids can hear anything around them with their stereos blasting?  Me too.  These and many other features of MyKey make this a system I know I’ll want in my vehicles when my kids start driving – and since that’s just under 10 years away imagine how even more advanced the technology will be by then!

I allowed myself to daydream and came up with a few features I’d like to see in my own MamaKey system, consider it a fleet management software for moms:

1) Instead of a vehicle maintenance schedule that covers maintenance under the hood, what about a lock-out system that won’t let the kids drive the car until the interior is vacuumed and cleaned?  Better yet, the car simply will not move out of park if food or drink is spilled (this, of course, applies to teenage drivers and not to parents in the car with toddlers as we’d never leave the end of our street.)

2) Instead of muting the audio system (for good reasons) in the original plan,  an audio system that automatically gets louder when a temper tantrum starts?  (I know many parents who use this method on their own, but this way it’s automatic!)

3) A lights-on safety feature that will not let the interior lights go out if the car is parked in any known make-out spot when my kids are teenagers.  GPS would allow parents to know when kids are in such a spot and bam – spotlight on the interior glowing brightly!

4) Maybe not quite the same as bus inspections, but a type of scan of the entire vehicle that, for teenagers again, can detect things like cigarette smoke (or other!) and even if someone in the vehicle had alcohol on their breath the night before.  Wouldn’t that be marvelous for a parent to find out the next day?

Since I still have just under a decade before Elijah gets his driver’s license, I can only hope that some of my fabulous inventions make it into the labs of Ford before then!

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  • My oldest could have her learner’s license in 11 months. Do you think you could make another visit to Ford and hurry them up on your suggestions?