Ford will introduce a new electronic governor next fall on its 2010 Focus that will allow parents of teen drivers to limit the car's top speed to 129 km/h and its audio system to less than half volume.

Called MyKey, Ford sensor-supplier.com/">calls the system a "simple software upgrade" to its existing passive anti-theft system. The company says it intends to eventually offer the system on its entire vehicle lineup.

The program also includes a feature that mutes the car's sound system until seatbelts are buckled in both occupied front seats. A reminder tells the driver why the sound system is muted.

"MyKey can help promote safer driving, particularly among teens, by encouraging seatbelt use, limiting speed and reducing distractions,"said Susan Cischke, Ford group vice-president of environment and safety engineering.

In Ontario, the speed limiter will be enough to prevent teens from breaching the province's "stunt driving" law on most provincial highways and county roads, which have speed limits of 80 km/h and higher.

Ford chose a top speed of 129 km/h (80 mph) because some U.S. states have speed limits of 80 mph, said Christine Hollander, spokeswoman for Ford of Canada. "It's above all the speed limits we have in Canada."

Ontario's anti-racing law, introduced last year, gave police the power to confiscate on the spot any vehicle clock at 50 km/h or more over any speed limit. More than 8,000 vehicles were seized in the first half of the year.

The MyKey system will be offered as a standard feature on the Focus at no charge, Hollander said Monday. "It's something that will migrate quickly to our other vehicles and become standard on other Ford vehicles as well."

The owner of the car will be able to set the speed limit for the Focus and limit the audio system to 44 per cent of its full volume by programming the ignition key in the dashboard of the car.

Reaction to the feature has been swift, but not entirely favourable, Hollander said. "Parents love it obviously, because they worry less. But teens have mixed feelings about it."

According to a survey conducted by Ford, 63 per cent of teens said they don't like the idea of a vehicle with a MyKey governor. The number of teens who disapproved of their parents' right to limit their speed dropped to 36 per cent if it meant they could drive more, the Ford survey found.