Toyota announced it was including two driver-monitoring technologies, developed with telecom giant MCI, in its 2007 Lexus GS 450h sedan. As Edmunds Inside Line reports, one is like a digital mother-in-law that calculates the possibility of a collision and sends an alert if a driver isn't facing forward; the other uses GPS to track teen drivers' behavior, alerting parents when the young ward speeds, travels to an area that's designated off-limits or loses her virginity behind the 7/11 (that's Circle K to you Westerners). The system will cost $300 to purchase the hardware, plus a yearly subscription fee of $60 for the wireless service. No word on a plug-in application that has "the talk" with kids.
Big Brother Alert: Lexus, MCI Working to Help Cars Monitor You [Edmunds]
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Franks to Teens: Big Father is Watching You; Utah Teens Invent New Automotive A/C System; Everyone Booze up and Riot! Roman Teens Take to Torching Cars [internal]