News
Release
July 21,2004
Los Angeles Times
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Teen Driver, Meet Big Brother
By Jeanne Wright Special to the Times
Back in the 1960s, teenagers could keep their parents in the dark about where they were driving
by temporarily disconnecting the odometer cable on the family can.
All they had to do was reach up under the dashboard and unscrew a nut that held the cable to the
speedometer housing.
By doing that, the teenagers could drive all the way down to Tijuana and their parents would
think they just went to the local drive-in.
More advanced odometers stopped that practice. And even newer technology has given parents
powerful weapons to keep tabs on their children - black boxes and global positioning systems.
Now worried parents can just about track their young driver's every move - including speeding and
other dangerous driving habits - when the teen heads off in the car. You could call it the era of
Big Parent.
It may your teenager's worst nightmare.
Omnitrack, one of the latest products designed as an antitheft and vehicle tracking system, allows
parents to access data on their computers showing where their teens are driving, how fast they are going
and the exact location of their vehicles p right down to a street address.
The system also has an "electronic fence" that acts as a sort of leash. You determine the
parameters and if the driver exceeds them, the folks at Omnitrack will notify you by phone, pager, email
or fax.
The system can also be programmed with a predetermined speed limit. If the limit is exceeded, the
company will alert you.
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