I'd be in favor of parental controls on cars, the same as on electronic devices. The key here is the word "parental". If I buy a car, and want the ability to restrict that vehicle to a certain speed, or amount of acceleration, etc, and enough other people do as well, why not offer that as a feature?
Parents have the responsibility to teach their offspring how to drive (as well as a lot of other things) but I know as a young, hotheaded 16 year old when dad wasn't in the car I pegged the speedometer many times, and wreaked my share of havoc. Yes, young drivers need to learn car control, but there are ways to do that that don't involve endagering others on public roads.
Chalk this up to the crazy HP times we live in. When a basic V6 Camry will run like a 20 year old exotic supercar, and some light-on-skill but heavy-on-ambition new driver can find themselves behind the wheel of mom's rocket grocery getter...some extra preventative measures might be helpful. Back in the malaise days of 100 HP, 3000 pound family cars, the lackadaisical drivetrain provided the speed/acceleration limits.
Curmudgeon wrote:
I'm blaming the Millennials in the 18-21 group mentioned in the article. They've grown up so coddled by all these magic electronics that it's no wonder they want something or someone else to make decisions for them.
Dude, you're living up to your screen name.
Everyone likes to bitch about the younger generation throughout history. Every older generation complains that the subsequent ones have it too easy. The baby boomers bitched that my generation (Gen X) were lazy entitled lay abouts. The 'Silent Generation' complained that the Baby boomers had it easy compared to them. The 'Greatest Generation' complained that having missed the depression the Silent generation were lucky and spoiled.
Let’s face it. Each new generation grew up making the best of what they had, you know those newfangled telephones that allowed kids to lay on the floor chatting while mom and dad tripped over the phone cords. or those damn televisions that were killing the art of reading. Don't get me started on that creation of the devil the wireless that polluted the youth with that satanic rock and roll jungle music. Let's not get started on those noisy model T's that meant the damn lazy folks didn’t' have to tend to the horses. I bet there were hold outs that thought wooden huts were too mollycoddling compared to caves where real men lived.
Yes, I'll get off your lawn.
I wonder if the "Greatest Generation's" parents said they had it too easy, LOL!
Gen. Y sure doesn't and it's rare to nonexistent for older generations to make that accusation in particular. To compensate, we get hit with every other negative stereotype under the sun 
The only one that I think is generally well-deserved is that most do rely on a lot of "electronic coddling." Not strictly in terms of electro-nannies keeping us safe but in blindly relying on technologies that we don't control and don't know how to fix, just relying on some megacorp to be benevolent and take care of our stuff (including personal info). Around 3/4 of people my age have this problem.
We pretty much had this where I grew up. It was called the barbershop. If my dad wanted to know what types of vehicular shenanigans I had been up to, all he had to do was ask Jack, the all knowing, all seeing town barber. The "ignition block" was "Give me the keys", backed by the ability and will to physically remove them from me in the event I was inclined to resist. Problem solved.
