The day your teenager gets their driver’s license is an exciting one. You realize you’ve regained some of your freedom. Gone are the days when you have to wake up early to take your high schooler to that 7:30 AM SAT prep class. You’re no longer the on-call weekend chauffeur for trips to the mall or a friend’s house. Hey, you can even ask your teenager to be the chauffeur to your younger children who can’t drive themselves. It’s certainly worth cracking a bottle of champagne over, not just to celebrate this milestone in your teen’s life but the little breathing room you just got back in yours. But, as soon as the excitement sets in, you’re struck with an unsettling reality; your teenager will be behind the wheel of a vehicle. Just yesterday, they were on a tricycle, and now they’re driving your pickup.
According to the CDC, the risk of car accidents is the highest amongst teens ages 16 to 19, but you don’t need to know that to worry about your impulsive teen being in control of a vehicle. Chevrolet understands this concern, and that’s why they’ve created their Teen Driver Technology, found in many of their top popular vehicles today, like the 2023 Chevy Silverado 1500 and the 2023 Chevy Traverse. This feature lets you activate certain limits when your teen is behind the wheel, which can activate some peace of mind for you, at least as much as you can have when your teen is on the road. Here is everything you should know about the Teen Driver system and how to use it.
Cool Things That the Teen Driver System Can Do
There are tons of useful and life-saving functions that Teen Driver is capable of. You can choose which ones you’d like to activate and customize them for you and your teen’s needs.
Speed Limiter
You can limit the speed that the car can travel. When this is activated, the vehicle will not accelerate past a certain speed, no matter how aggressively the teen driver is putting the pedal to the metal. If you know you have a young speed demon under your roof, this is a very useful feature.
Speed Warning
Activate speed warning so that the car will warn a teen driver if they’re going too fast. It will show a flashing signal on the dash as well as sound an audible chime. These warnings are hard to ignore and should encourage a teen driver to slow down.
The Industry-First Buckle to Drive Feature
The Buckle to Drive feature will not allow a vehicle to move when it senses that the driver or front seat passenger isn’t wearing their seat belt. On certain models, this feature is always on so long as Teen Driver is on.
Content Filter
If you manage what your teen watches and listens to on their phone or laptop, you should do the same in the car. You can use the SiriusXM Explicit Content Filter to ensure your teen can’t listen to anything inappropriate for young ears.
Audio Limit
Teens love to blast their favorite tunes, but this can mean they might fail to hear important sounds on the road, like incoming sirens or blaring horns. You can limit how high the volume goes in the Teen Driver system. You can also set it up so the radio won’t turn on if the front seat passenger and driver aren’t buckled in.
Flashing Low Fuel Light
Teens like to see what they can get away with, including how far they can drive on a low gas tank. You don’t want your teenager stranded on the side of a desert road with no gas. Activate the low fuel light warning, which will repeatedly flash when it’s time to get gas. (Whether or not your teen pays you back for gas like they said they would is a different story).
Super Cruise Deactivation
Super Cruise is a Chevrolet system that allows for hands-free driving on compatible roads and under certain conditions. However, you probably don’t want your teenager using this feature. You can deactivate it when Teen Driver is on so your teen will always have their hands on ten and two.
Report Card
Hopefully, your teenager is a responsible driver who doesn’t need supervision. Still, just in case, you’ll probably appreciate that you can see a teen driver report card in your infotainment system. Just go to “view report card” and see things like the maximum speed driven, distance driven, when certain safety systems were triggered, and how often the accelerator was floored. This report card allows you to have an open conversation with your teenager about their driving habits to encourage safer driving behavior on the road.
How to Turn On Teen Driver
If you have decided that Teen Driver is right for you, here’s how to activate it. When the vehicle is in park, go to the settings tab on the infotainment screen, then touch “choose driver” and then “teen driver.” You’ll be asked to create a four-digit pin. Do not share this with your teenager. This pin prevents your teen from changing any of the settings in the Teen Driver system. Select “add/remove teen driver keys” or “setup keys” (the prompt is different depending on your model).
Follow the prompts regarding where your key fob should be during this process. From here, you can configure settings to your liking, like audio and speed limits, SiriusXM explicit content filters, and more. From there, when the car detects your teenager’s key fob, Teen Driver will automatically activate. Now the tricky part is telling your teenager that you’ve activated Teen Driver. We wish we had tips on how to handle their reaction to that.
Giving Your Teen Their Freedom, While Giving You Peace of Mind
Learning how to not only drive but also be a safe driver is an important part of becoming an adult. Teenagers are, by nature, impulsive and easily distracted. Pair that with the massive responsibility of driving a vehicle, and giving your teen the keys to your car can be a nerve-wracking day. You can’t stop your teen from driving (well, you can, but you probably don’t want to if you’re ready to retire as chauffeur). You can do what is within your power to help them be as safe a driver as possible.
The Teen Driver function on many of today’s Chevrolet models was designed to make the transition of seeing your kid go from being a kid to being a teen driver a little easier on parents. It’s loaded with controls that give you some command over what your teen driver does on the road. Plus, with the teen driver report card, you don’t have to rely on your teen’s word to know if they were speeding or blasting their music. You can get the facts and then talk with your teen about safe driving.
Your teenager had to grow up one day. Eventually, they’ll have their own car and be too old for this function. Luckily, until that day comes, you have resources at your disposal to encourage good driving habits on your teen’s part, and Chevrolet is a part of the solution with their Teen Driver system.
