Most of us were at one point teen drivers that wanted to go faster than our skill and experience enabled us to. And while we've grown to become experienced drivers, youngsters are still tempted to hammer it for a bit of adrenaline, sometimes unwisely. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety->ke2860 cites that the ages of 16 to 19 years are statistically the most dangerous by far. Fortunately for parents who want to coach teenagers on how to learn safe diving skills, GM has come up with a system that supports safe driving habits even when tutors are not in the car. It's called Teen Driver and it's set to debut in the 2016 Malibu.

A first in the industry according to Chevy,->ke199 Teen Driver is a built-in system that lets parents view how their teenager drove the vehicle by tracking car data. Parents can view the data on the car's display and decide whether their teenagers need more tutoring or not. But how does it work?

Continue reading to learn more about the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu.

How Does It Work

To use Teen Driver, a parent only needs to activate the feature by creating a PIN in the Settings menu of the car's MyLink system. It's important to note here that the tool will be standard on the Premier trim and optional on LT models that are equipped with the Convenience Package. When active, Teen Driver automatically mutes the radio until front safety belts are fastened. Also, the radio system’s maximum volume can be set to a lower level so it doesn't distract the driver from the road ahead. Parents can also select a maximum speed between 40-75 mph, which, if exceeded, activates visual and audible warnings.

The car's safety features, such as stability control, traction control, forward collision alert or forward collision braking, are automatically turned on when Teen Driver is activated, with no option to manually disable them. The nannies will be active as long as the app has a firm grip of the car. When in traffic, the system records stability control and antilock brake events, as well as alerts issued by the forward collision features. That's on top of monitoring the distance and the maximum speed the sedan->ke142 reaches with the Teen Driver feature turned on.

Why it matters

Granted, this system won't stop teen drivers from doing foolish things in traffic, as there's no actual supervision and they can ignore all the warnings anyway, but knowing you're watching will definitely make them think twice. Needless to say, Saturday night out with dad’s car just got boring, but correspondingly safer.

2016 Chevrolet Malibu