One of the major problems with the US system of training teens to drive is that parents don’t have the training they need to properly train their teens to drive. While driving may be second nature to parents, it’s all new to the teen and with the teen at the wheel, parents miss out on a lot of “teachable moments.”
Researchers at the Highway Safety Research Centre at the University of North Carolina installed video cameras to see how much time parents actually devoted to driving instructions when teaching their teens to drive. The videos showed that parents spend more time on rudimentary vehicle handling techniques and not enough time on “higher order” techniques that will teach the teen to anticipate and plan for possible hazards ahead. Read more: Parents’ driving instruction often superficial