• MyKeyTM, another innovation from the company that introduced SYNC®, allows parents to limit speed and audio volume to encourage teens to drive safer and improve fuel efficiency
• Harris Interactive Survey shows that many parents would allow teens to drive more often if their vehicle was equipped with MyKey – helping young drivers build road safety experience
• MyKey will debut as a standard feature this summer on the 2010 Ford Focus and will quickly be offered on many other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models

Ford Motor Company is introducing an innovative new technology – called MyKey – designed to help parents encourage their teen-agers to drive safer and more fuel efficiently, and increase safety-belt usage.

Ford’s MyKey feature – which this summer as standard equipment on the 2010 Ford Focus and will quickly become standard on many other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models – allows owners to program a key that can limit the vehicle’s top speed and audio volume. MyKey also encourages safety-belt usage, provides earlier low-fuel warnings and can be programmed to sound chimes at 45, 55 and 65 miles per hour.

“Ford not only offers industry-leading crash protection and crash avoidance systems, we also are committed to developing new technologies such as MyKey that encourage safer driving behavior,” said Susan Cischke, Ford group vice president of Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering. “MyKey can help promote safer driving, particularly among teens, by encouraging seat belt use, limiting speed and reducing distractions.”

MyKey is appealing to parents of teen drivers, including 75 percent who like the speed-limiting feature, 72 percent who like the more insistent safety-belt reminder, and 63 percent who like the audio limit feature, according to a recent Harris Interactive Survey conducted for Ford.

About 50 percent of those who would consider purchasing MyKey also said they would allow their children to use the family vehicle more often if it were equipped with the new technology. The added seat time can help teens build their driving skills in a more controlled setting, complementing graduated licensing laws that give young drivers more driving freedom as they get older.

More than half of parents surveyed worry that their teen-age children are driving at unsafe speeds, talking on hand-held cell phones or texting while driving, or otherwise driving distracted. More than a third of parents also are concerned that their teens do not always buckle their safety belts when driving.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), teens are more likely to take risks such as speeding – a contributing factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes. Teens also are less likely to wear safety belts than older drivers.

Teens surveyed by Harris said they are largely open to MyKey if it means they will have more freedom to drive. Initially, 67 percent of teens polled said they wouldn’t want MyKey features. However, if using MyKey would lead to greater driving privileges, only 36 percent would object to the technology.

“We’ve upgraded an existing, proven technology – the SecuriLock passive anti-theft system – with some simple software upgrades to develop a new unique feature that we believe will resonate with customers,” said Jim Buczkowski, director, Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering – the same team that developed SYNC in partnership with Microsoft. “We also developed MyKey’s functions in such a way to quickly spread it across multiple vehicle lines, giving us the ability to go mass market in the spirit of other Ford innovations such as safety belts, stability control and SYNC.”

BUDERIM, Australia – Jessica Watson stares out at the expanse of Pacific Ocean from the deck of her family home. The sun glistens off the calm sea and all appears tranquil.

In September, Watson’s experience of the ocean will likely be much different – she’ll be attempting to become the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world.

She’ll start the voyage at the tender age of 16, which has triggered animated debate in Australia about her parents and their decision to approve such a journey.

“You’ve got to have a goal, you’ve got to go for something,” Watson said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I have the experience, I have the team, I have the preparations. I think I can do it.”

Sailing in her newly refit 34-foot yacht, Watson will cover nearly 23,000 nautical miles on a journey that will take her from Australia’s east coast and across the equator, south to Cape Horn at the tip of South America, across the Atlantic Ocean to South Africa, through the Indian Ocean and south of Australia back home.

She expects the trip to take her seven to eight months – “230 days hopefully” – she says, at which time she would become the youngest person to complete a solo unassisted circumnavigation.

The previous mark is held by another Australian, Jesse Martin, who was 18 when he completed the journey in 1999. An American, 17-year Zac Sunderland of Marina del Rey, Calif., is in the latter stages of completing a solo, around-the-world trip, although it’s not in the “unassisted” category.

“Without assistance” means that a vessel may not receive any kind of outside help or take on board any supplies, materials or equipment during the attempt. A craft may be anchored or beached during the attempt, but any repairs must be made without outside resources, materials or help.

Watson, who was inspired by fellow Australian Kay Cottee, the first woman to sail solo nonstop unassisted around the world, could easily beat the record in both age and time, but the very fact that a slight, under 110-pound teenage girl will be attempting such an arduous and dangerous trip has raised its share of eyebrows.