Teen Behind the Wheel

[dan_meh]

Thanks everyone for the advice here: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/anyone-have-a-teen-driver-and-a-mme.49805/

I decided to take her around a parking lot in the MME today. I wanted to judge her ability to handle the car. I have a Premium Extended Range AWD. She did so well, I let her take it onto public roads. I’m outside DC and it was Veteran’s Day, so the streets were mostly empty.

Lessons learned to pass on:

I too a long time to go over the driving set up. I explained auto hold, 1 pedal driving, and the drive modes. Seriously, this took much longer than I thought it would. I let her try out different combinations. She wanted to try them again and again until she understood the differences.

I had her stomp on it in Unbridle. We were in a totally empty parking lot with lots of runway and I wanted her to feel the danger of the punch. She’s the kind of kid who doesn’t like to be out of control, so this was good for her. She said, “I don’t want that.” I then had her put it into Whisper and go again. She said, “that’s what I want.”

We settled on autohold and 1 pedal off in whisper and I saved that to a profile for her. I said getting a profile is different from getting the keys. You’ll get the keys when you’re ready.

She drove the Sienna before so this wasn’t her first rodeo, but I made her spend another 30 minutes feeling the acceleration. This was the hardest part: smoothly accelerating and judging her speed. Wow, it was painful.

I wish the car had louder acceleration sounds. She complained that the sienna makes a ton of noise but the MME doesn’t. As a learner, she wants the auditory feedback, and I think she’s right. I know that the MME has a sound but it’s not loud enough for her.

She proved herself, so we went out on Alexandria roads. She likes the size of the MME and the “wavy hood” as she put it. This was interesting to me because I hadn’t thought of it. The curves on the hood really helped her know where the corners of the car were. We have a lot of very narrow streets and she loved it for that.

Far from wanting to go too fast, she wanted to go too slow. We had to pull over from time to time to let cars by. But then, on longer stretches, she would be going a bit fast for my liking and for hers. She didn’t want to be going that fast, it just kind of snuck up on her. It’s this “sneaky speed” that’s the problem. Even with the speed warning, she struggled because there’s no drama to the speed. The car doesn’t vibrate or make a loud enough sound.

I’m glad I gave her a shot at it, and we’ll do it again with me in the car. But it’s hard for me to see (yet) allowing her to take this car out by herself. I’m much closer to seeing her take the Sienna out alone.

Current wish list:

• More acceleration indicators. Noise, yes, but maybe some kind of light like the ID Light that’s kind of a power meter thing.
• Forced whisper mode or something that makes it a 9 second 0-60 time
• My Key is a great idea! More things linked to it
• Some teen monitoring on the Ford App. Like I want a report of her driving, what mode she was in, times she was more than 5 MPH over the limit…. Something like that.
• 
  

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[ChrisO]

Totally agree on the sound and how you can get going really fast without noticing it. Even my wife has looked down at the speedometer at times and said she didn’t realize she was going so fast.

Unless you really step on it in Unbridled you can barely hear it. In Engaged or especially Whisper you would have the accelerator almost to the floor.

I think I would recommend Engaged over Whisper though, it is the mode that is the closest to an ICE car. It is what my wife uses (without 1 pedal). It would be nice if you could adjust the sound and other things like how aggressive it is separately.

 

[tbrumleve]

Most EVs are advanced cars. You’ve covered the major items. My daughter is a year from starting to drive an we are going through the same. She’s learning on a 2017 Honda Pilot that will be her daily when time comes. I’ve gone back and forth with teaching her how to drive the pony. It’s a lot to handle as a new driver.

 

[Mach1E]

A few suggestions-

Stick with engage mode in 2 pedal drive.
It drives more like an ICE and will help when she drives other cars.

Get the Life360 app. It tells you average and top speed and when she leaves and gets home, etc.

Pay for driving lessons. We did that with our 16 year old and it’s worth every penny. Plus they learn all the REAL rules and not just our same bad habits.

Don’t let her rely on backup and 360 cameras. Do the old “hand on the passenger seat and look back” to back up. I’ve seen new drivers get in a car without backup cameras and just go straight back without looking.

 

[jav_eee]

Stick with engage mode in 2 pedal drive.
It drives more like an ICE and will help when she drives other cars.

this. You say she’s driven a sienna (that doesn’t have 1PD) so why change from what she already knows? That’s gotta be very confusing for someone just learning to drive.

 

[jav_eee]

I’ve seen new drivers get in a car without backup cameras and just go straight back without looking.

Someone on Reddit asked opinions on how severe some vehicle damage was and if people thought the vehicle maker would compensate them for the damage because he said his wife backed into a tree at a pretty good speed “because the backup sensors never went off”.

Nearly everyone told him to tell his wife to use her eyes next time.

 

[dan_meh]

this. You say she’s driven a sienna (that doesn’t have 1PD) so why change from what she already knows? That’s gotta be very confusing for someone just learning to drive.

Agreed! She has auto hold and 1 pedal drive off. No argument here.

Our experience was that she wanted to try all the options in an empty parking lot and that she got a lot out of that experiment. She feels very confident now in her choices. And (checks notes from Virginia Parents Driver Education) a confident driver is a safe driver.

 

[rreddy3]

Thanks everyone for the advice here: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/anyone-have-a-teen-driver-and-a-mme.49805/

I decided to take her around a parking lot in the MME today. I wanted to judge her ability to handle the car. I have a Premium Extended Range AWD. She did so well, I let her take it onto public roads. I’m outside DC and it was Veteran’s Day, so the streets were mostly empty.

Lessons learned to pass on:

I too a long time to go over the driving set up. I explained auto hold, 1 pedal driving, and the drive modes. Seriously, this took much longer than I thought it would. I let her try out different combinations. She wanted to try them again and again until she understood the differences.

I had her stomp on it in Unbridle. We were in a totally empty parking lot with lots of runway and I wanted her to feel the danger of the punch. She’s the kind of kid who doesn’t like to be out of control, so this was good for her. She said, “I don’t want that.” I then had her put it into Whisper and go again. She said, “that’s what I want.”

We settled on autohold and 1 pedal off in whisper and I saved that to a profile for her. I said getting a profile is different from getting the keys. You’ll get the keys when you’re ready.

She drove the Sienna before so this wasn’t her first rodeo, but I made her spend another 30 minutes feeling the acceleration. This was the hardest part: smoothly accelerating and judging her speed. Wow, it was painful.

I wish the car had louder acceleration sounds. She complained that the sienna makes a ton of noise but the MME doesn’t. As a learner, she wants the auditory feedback, and I think she’s right. I know that the MME has a sound but it’s not loud enough for her.

She proved herself, so we went out on Alexandria roads. She likes the size of the MME and the “wavy hood” as she put it. This was interesting to me because I hadn’t thought of it. The curves on the hood really helped her know where the corners of the car were. We have a lot of very narrow streets and she loved it for that.

Far from wanting to go too fast, she wanted to go too slow. We had to pull over from time to time to let cars by. But then, on longer stretches, she would be going a bit fast for my liking and for hers. She didn’t want to be going that fast, it just kind of snuck up on her. It’s this “sneaky speed” that’s the problem. Even with the speed warning, she struggled because there’s no drama to the speed. The car doesn’t vibrate or make a loud enough sound.

I’m glad I gave her a shot at it, and we’ll do it again with me in the car. But it’s hard for me to see (yet) allowing her to take this car out by herself. I’m much closer to seeing her take the Sienna out alone.

Current wish list:

• More acceleration indicators. Noise, yes, but maybe some kind of light like the ID Light that’s kind of a power meter thing.
• Forced whisper mode or something that makes it a 9 second 0-60 time
• My Key is a great idea! More things linked to it
• Some teen monitoring on the Ford App. Like I want a report of her driving, what mode she was in, times she was more than 5 MPH over the limit…. Something like that.
• 
  

Dan, it sounds like you and your daughter are handling this intro to an electric car beautifully. You are both to be commended for this and making good decisions.

It’s way more complicated than 25 years ago when I was teaching my sons to drive the Prelude and later a Focus, both with manual gearboxes…with the goal of feathering the clutch and throttle and not just dumping the clutch and stalling the car or getting it the car to move but not giving it enough gas to smooth things out.

Reminds me of my brother teaching me to drive a manual three on the tree 57 GMC pickup in the early 60s … I wasn’t dialing in enough throttle and the truck was lurching, he reached across, put his hand on my right leg and shoved it down, and boom my foot hit the gas pedal…away we went, problem solved, lesson learned. Some things actually were simpler back in the day.

 

[ChrisO]

Dan, it sounds like you and your daughter are handling this intro to an electric car beautifully. You are both to be commended for this and making good decisions.

It’s way more complicated than 25 years ago when I was teaching my sons to drive the Prelude and later a Focus, both with manual gearboxes…with the goal of feathering the clutch and throttle and not just dumping the clutch and stalling the car or getting it the car to move but not giving it enough gas to smooth things out.

Reminds me of my brother teaching me to drive a manual three on the tree 57 GMC pickup in the early 60s … I wasn’t dialing in enough throttle and the truck was lurching, he reached across, put his hand on my right leg and shoved it down, and boom my foot hit the gas pedal…away we went, problem solved, lesson learned. Some things actually were simpler back in the day.

It is interesting that you mention the clutch and having to feather it, because that is exactly how I feel about the throttle on the Mach-E especially in 1 pedal mode.

My first experience with a clutch was on a motorcycle in an Air Force training class you had to take to drive a motorcycle on base. And the main focus was on clutch control.

Using the same feathering on the Mach-E accelerator means I hardly notice the difference between the different drive modes. I just naturally just adjust to the car to get the speed/braking I need.

When I taught my sister how to drive a manual transmission we went to an empty parking lot, and I had her slow engage the clutch just enough till the car moved and then have her back off. Doing that across the parking lot and back a few times got her to quickly get a feel for this. Note though she was already driving an automatic for many years by this time.

Did a similar thing with my wife for 1 pedal driving and some around the city driving and she picked it up fine but never liked it. She drives 2 pedal and in Engage mode.

It is nice that the Mach-E can be driven just as efficiently in either 1 pedal or 2 pedal mode due to being a hybrid braking system.

 

[ShaggySS]

My 15-year-old tried the MME the other day and really liked it. Dislike the wife's Y. Win for MME

She started in the whisper and when she tried out the engage she really liked that. She said the Y didn't stop nearly as well when you took your foot off the GO

 

[ChrisO]

My 15-year-old tried the MME the other day and really liked it. Dislike the wife's Y. Win for MME

She started in the whisper and when she tried out the engage she really liked that. She said the Y didn't stop nearly as well when you took your foot off the GO

I love the term “GO”.

 

[AnimalChin]

Driving Schools like Bondurant have classes for teens who are learning to drive.

 

[rreddy3]

It is interesting that you mention the clutch and having to feather it, because that is exactly how I feel about the throttle on the Mach-E especially in 1 pedal mode.

My first experience with a clutch was on a motorcycle in an Air Force training class you had to take to drive a motorcycle on base. And the main focus was on clutch control.

Using the same feathering on the Mach-E accelerator means I hardly notice the difference between the different drive modes. I just naturally just adjust to the car to get the speed/braking I need.

When I taught my sister how to drive a manual transmission we went to an empty parking lot, and I had her slow engage the clutch just enough till the car moved and then have her back off. Doing that across the parking lot and back a few times got her to quickly get a feel for this. Note though she was already driving an automatic for many years by this time.

Did a similar thing with my wife for 1 pedal driving and some around the city driving and she picked it up fine but never liked it. She drives 2 pedal and in Engage mode.

It is nice that the Mach-E can be driven just as efficiently in either 1 pedal or 2 pedal mode due to being a hybrid braking system.

Great comments Chris. I too feather the pedals on the MME and the car is smooth as silk. It's not something I think about, I just do it, it's so ingrained it just happens. Any passenger has no idea if I'm in one or two pedal ... just ease off the "gas" pedal when in one pedal and it's perfectly smooth. I know you know that the pedals aren't binary on/off switches, they're more like rheostats (if those still exist ... ).

I also had a motorcycle, a 441cc BSA Victor Special, when in the USAF, a very long time ago. So long ago I can't remember base training.

The coaching tips you used for your sister and wife are great. If I had to teach someone now, I'd borrow your techniques, Chris.

 

[pikepilot]

Second the life 360 app.

 

[dan_meh]

Update on the project….

She’s doing great in both the Sienna and the MME. (Her mother, not so much… gasps from the back seat, where she’s banished).

Her problem is the same: how fast the speed ramps in the MME. She just hasn’t been able to master it, and it has taught me how hard that feel is, especially if she’s bouncing back and forth between the Sienna and the MME.

The Sienna moves to 60 MPH slowly, with a loud Atkins cycle engine and a CVT at a struggle-bus note. The wheel vibrates. There’s a bit of rubber band in the accelerator. There’s so much feedback coming to the driver.

The MME simply goes. It’s what I love about it for me, but for the new driver, the speed comes on as a surprise. Still, some six months later, she’s going 10 MPH faster than she should be.

I find myself saying “coast… coast…” to her, otherwise, we’re either on the accelerator or on the brake. She IS getting better, but so much slower without the feedback.

Next generation wish list for new drivers (imagine these as a “new to EVs” mode. I know the buyer of this vehicle well enough to know we like the Engage mode, so I’m imagining these as opt in):

• Louder drive noises, especially in relation to the radio
• Piped in “wind noise” that is proportional to speed.
• Acceleration coach (like braking coach, but a report of how hard you’re mashing the speed). Maybe it’s a chime? Something to say, “you’re really ramping speed… do you mean to?”
• The existing MyKey things.
• Quick Fob or PaaK disconnect (like parental controls on a phone)

Many have recommended the Life 360 app. Haven’t tried it yet, but @Ford Motor Company has a business opportunity in the Ford app. Why can’t I get a driving report from ford?

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