In-Car Video Monitoring Helps Parents Keep An Eye on Teen Drivers

Does your teenager drive differently when you’re not in the car?  Now parents in 18 states don’t have to wonder about that any more, if they have American Family Insurance, according to the Insurance Journal. 

The auto insurance company has introduced a limited program offering a free dual-sided video camera mounted on interior rear-view mirrors which shoots straight ahead as well as the driver and the car’s interior.

A motion sensor kicks on if there’s erratic driving, like rapid acceleration, swerving, abrupt braking or collisions, recording 10 seconds before and after the activity.  The video is wirelessly transmitted to a password protected website, which parents can access to review their teen’s driving.  An analyst also writes a report about the incident.

A preliminary test showed that risky driving was reduced by 70% with the cameras.  It’s too early to tell if adding a camera will reduce teen auto insurance premiums.  Other insurance companies currently offer GPS services to track speed and where teens have gone to help parents monitor their children’s driving.  It’s only a matter of time until other car insurance companies follow suit with these services, since inexperienced teen drivers are one of the highest risk groups to insure.

One family has already learned an important lesson from the program.  17-year-old Bradley Antonio protested when the camera was installed in his car, but two days later when he was in an accident, the camera showed he’d made a left turn in front of the oncoming vehicle.  “It was frightening, really frightening, to see that,” his mother, Laura Antonio recalled.

Not surprisingly, teen drivers aren’t too happy about this program.  Colorado teen Chase Ryland protested that he wouldn’t be able to kiss his girlfriend anymore.  He’s right, at least not while he’s driving!