Getting a driver’s license is a cornerstone in a teenager’s life.  The freedom afforded by unsupervised driving is something for which most teens yearn.  But unfortunately, hubris, inexperience, and distractions from both modern gadgets and friends often have disastrous consequences – leading to 1 in 4 teens having a car accident within their first year of driving.

While parents can’t expect to chaperon  their children on all driving excursions, they can monitor their teens habits with a clever product from Lemur Monitors.  Rather than relying on GPS technology for tracking, the SafeDriver from Lemur has a wireless transmitter module that plugs into a car’s OBD port, which has been required on all new cars sold in the U.S. since 1996.  The transmitter sends data about the car’s speed to a receiver on the teen’s key chain, which logs the information so that it can be reviewed later.  Tampering with the data is also recorded.

While the device isn’t going to physically prevent the kind of irresponsible driving behavior for which teens are notorious, its presence will subtly remind the driver that his/her actions won’t go unnoticed.

[Via:  NYT GadgetWise]