Automotive

Chevy's new seat belt feature stops teens taking off unless they're buckled up

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According to Chevrolet, teen drivers are far less likely to use a seat belt
Chevrolet
According to Chevrolet, teen drivers are far less likely to use a seat belt
Chevrolet
Announced today, the Buckle to Drive feature keeps the car at a standstill until the driver is all buckled up
Chevrolet
Chevrolet's Buckle to Drive feature is designed to encourage safer driving habits
Chevrolet
The Buckle to Drive feature will be included in the 2020 Chevrolet Traverse, Malibu and Colorado
Chevrolet
Announced today, the Buckle to Drive feature keeps the car at a standstill until the driver is all buckled up
Chevrolet
Chevrolet's Buckle to Drive feature is designed to encourage safer driving habits
Chevrolet
Announced today, the Buckle to Drive feature keeps the car at a standstill until the driver is all buckled up
Chevrolet
According to Chevrolet, teen drivers are far less likely to use a seat belt
Chevrolet
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According to Chevrolet, teen drivers are far less likely to use a seat belt, so it has incorporated some new technology into vehicles to encourage safer habits. Called Buckle to Drive, the new feature adds to Chevrolet's Teen Driver mode and will temporarily prevent teenagers from taking off until their seatbelt is secured.

Introduced in 2015, Chevrolet's Teen Driver mode functions like a report card, gathering information on how teenagers are driving and offering parents a neat summary thereafter.

Set up by the parents and engaged when the teenager enters the car with their pre-programmed key fob, the system tracks things like distance, maximum speed, how many times the driver was warned for going over the limit and how many times safety features like stability and traction control were triggered. It will also automatically mute the radio until the driver and front-seat passenger have fastened their seat belts.

Announced today, the Buckle to Drive feature takes things one step further, keeping the car at a standstill until the driver is all buckled up. If they are not, then the car won't shift out of park for 20 seconds and they'll be presented with an audio alert and dashboard message that reads "Buckle seat belt to shift."

Announced today, the Buckle to Drive feature keeps the car at a standstill until the driver is all buckled up
Chevrolet

While a 20-second wait before taking off isn't the end the world, the idea is to create just enough of an inconvenience to encourage safer habits. Chevrolet said it recently carried out an internal study where the feature proved to increase seatbelt use among adults by 16 percent compared to the typical chiming audio reminder most cars rely on.

"Buckle to Drive is Chevrolet's latest feature designed to encourage young drivers to develop safe driving habits right from the start," said Tricia Morrow, Chevrolet safety engineer. "Buckle to Drive is embedded in Chevrolet's Teen Driver system and is aimed at helping remind teens to buckle up every time they get behind the wheel."

The feature will be included in the 2020 Chevrolet Traverse, Malibu and Colorado. You can check out the promo video below.

Source: Chevrolet

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6 comments
Jasbee_Jones
I wonder if enough force would cause the shifter to shift. I also wonder how much force would be required to break the shifter.
paul314
I would be perfectly happy to see that universal.
Bill Bennett
I guess Chevy doesn't make cars with manual transmissions. I remember back in the '70's the starter wouldn't engage without the seat belt latched.
guzmanchinky
If it's the teen key it shouldn't work at all without the seatbelt. My daughter is 15 and she says she feels totally weird if she's not wearing a seatbelt.
misty45
Volvo has done this for years. A story about non innovation won’t sell me a Chevy.
Gregg Eshelman
A seatbelt starter interlock was required on all new vehicles in the USA for 1974. For 1975 the requirement was removed due to a huge amount of failures of the system, and also to the inconvenience of having to buckle the passenger seatbelt after placing an item on the seat. I don't recall the minimum weight for tripping the seat switch, but a bulky enough item that weighed enough would make it impossible to buckle the belt. Couldn't simply leave the belt buckled all the time, the sequence had to be sit, buckle, start.
Dealers were not allowed to disable the systems but they were required to provide disabling information on request to owners of 1974 vehicles.
The official disabling procedure was somewhat complex (at least on Fords it was). The quick and easy way to disable it was to reach under the front seats and either disconnect or cut the wires to the switches in the seat cushions. Ford used a long, curved, normally closed switch made of flexible plastic and metal strips. With enough flexing the switch could become unreliable or broken, causing it to not open when a person occupied the seat.