'Teens are probably the riskiest drivers,' said Sue Cischke, group vice president of sustainability, environment and safety engineering at Ford. 'MyKey helps parents encourage their teens to drive safely.' The fully configurable system allows concerned parents to program their children's keys from a menu of restrictions and enhanced alerts. Those worried that their teens might use the family sedan to lay down a patch of rubber in front of the high school can prevent them from turning off the car's traction control system, making it all but impossible to spin the tires. Those worried about their teens running out of gas can change the 'Low Fuel' alert from 50 miles to 75 miles. Those worried about unauthorized trips can track how far their kids drive. In addition to being able to limit the vehicle's top speed to 80 miles per hour -- Ford picked that speed because some parts of the country have speed limits above 70 miles per hour -- parents can use MyKey to alert their children if they exceed a lower speed as well. They can also prevent teens from deactivating other in-car safety systems, such as the back-up radar. Each car can have up to eight keys, and parents can set different parameters for each one. That means older -- or safer -- teen drivers can be given fewer restrictions. The car works normally when adults use their keys. The settings can only be changed with the master key. When they are, the mileage for the teen's key is reset, meaning that alert parents will find out if their son or daughter steals the master to change the settings on his or her own key. 'It's a clever system. It's well thought out,' said analyst Stephanie Brinley of AutoPacific Inc. 'Once parents know about it, they'll want it.' Teens have the lowest seatbelt usage rates of any demographic -- a fact that helps make motor vehicle accidents the leading cause of death for young Americans ages 16-20, Ford said. That is why Ford paid special attention to the seatbelt minder. Not only does it provide the driver with 'more insistent' reminders to buckle up when activated, but the car's stereo will not work until all the occupants do -- a sure way to get teens' attention. The automaker also demonstrated other new safety systems for journalists Monday. These included a new crash-avoidance system that alerts drivers and pre-charges the vehicle's brakes seconds before a collision, a blind-spot detection system and a second-generation backup radar system that detects traffic or pedestrians approaching the vehicle from the side. Not surprisingly, MyKey proved a big hit with parents in Ford's focus groups, but teens were less enthusiastic. However, when Ford asked teens how they would feel about the technology if it meant more access to the family car, the percentage of objections dropped dramatically. 'They thought that would be a decent trade-off,' Cischke said. Ford also hopes that, once it has real world data to support the efficacy of MyKey, insurance companies will consider offering discounts for younger drivers who use the system -- another factor that teens said would boost their opinion of MyKey. Moreover, today's teens are more accustomed to monitoring technology than any previous generation, said Andy Sarkisian, manager of North American safety strategy and planning. 'They've grown up with the V-chip,' he said, referring to the built-in TV censoring circuit. 'This is the 9/11 generation.' Ford says commercial fleet customers are also interested in MyKey. They could use the same system to limit drivers' top speed and prevent them listening to the radio while driving. Uncle Sam likes the idea, too. 'Our research and development office has been talking to Ford about it,' said National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokeswoman Elly Martin. 'We are excited about this and very interested.'