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 car.
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 be your teenager's worst nightmare.
Omnitrack, one of the latest products designed as an anti-theft 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 -- 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.
The price isn't cheap. The devices, by GPS Technologies, begin at $995. A demonstration can be viewed online at www.omnitrack.net.
There are other choices. On a recent family road trip to Baja California, we tested the Drive Right CarChip by Davis Instruments. The device, which is about the size of two 9-volt batteries, monitors your vehicle's performance under the hood and behind the wheel. We connected the device into the car's on-board diagnostics connector under the dashboard and it started logging data, including speed, distances and hard accelerations and braking -- even coolant temperature.
At the end of the trip, we used the system's software to download the information to our PC. The data showed we traveled 147 miles. I was surprised that our top speed during the trip was 81 mph. It must have been when my husband was driving. I guess he's the one in the family who needs to be monitored. CarChip sells for $179. (Diagnostic connectors are available on 1996 and newer cars.)
