It may not be a popular idea with their peers - but they're hoping it'll be a real hit with the parents.
Young entrepreneurs and Taupo-nui-a-Tia College students Ryan White and Louis Scrivener, both 18, have come up with the bright idea of a device to install in cars which collects data on where the car goes, at what times and how fast. It will sync to an app for parents which will allow them to monitor whether their teenagers are complying with the conditions of their restricted driver's licence.
The idea grew from their Year 13 Young Enterprise Scheme project and they hope their company Key Ideas NZ's mission statement - to reduce serious crashes and deaths on New Zealand roads among youth drivers - will soon become reality.
It works via a device that plugs into a car's OBD2 (on board diagnostics) slot. The OBD2 normally provides access to data from the engine control unit for technicians. But it can also be used for plug and play devices, including data loggers, and that's what Ryan and Louis want to use to send signals via SMS (text) message to a database and from there to an account on the Key Ideas NZ app.
Louis says the device is a simplified version of devices that big fleet managers, such as truck companies, use.