rlpvl - a good thought. As an extension of your example, "maximum sound volume" is another thing I would love to limit in my car if/when one of my kids is borrowing it.
Kay Kay - thanks for the reply.
Paul in PalmCity - I think that autonomous technology will refine many things, and your example is a good one. As for not allowing your son driving your X, that's fine and your choice. Hopefully you can understand my reasons for feeling differently [if I could regulate aspects of the vehicle's performance].
brkaus - an interesting thought. I would agree.
johnadurcan - thanks for the reply.
To all - From a few replies, I can see there is some [understandable] resistance to the idea of letting a kid, i.e. teenager, drive one of these beasts. But let me propose that if price/money was not a concern, most if not all of us would choose the absolute safest car for our children to drive beyond any other consideration. At the same time, we would avoid allowing our children behind the wheel of a vehicle that we felt was dangerous. Correct?
My Model S is an interesting conundrum. On one hand it's incredibly safe. On the other hand it is a rocket ship. But, amazingly, I can see the potential for allowing regulation which would make me more comfortable allowing my child to borrow it.
But maybe not your child?
We've all seen Ferris Beuller's Day Off, right? Well, at least the Tesla engineers have. Why else create the software for Valet mode? Or are we not the slightest bit nervous about turning our wheel over to someone we don't know at all?
Two years from now, if my son wants to take my Model S out on a date, I can imagine feeling fine about that (a) assuming he's a safe and responsible driver/person, which is something I'll observe as his father, and (b) he can't impress his friends with ludicrous acceleration (for starters), yada-yada-yada...because I'm not that far from being a teenager myself to not know better. I would also love to be able to set max acceleration and speed (isn't Tesla's autonomous driving going to do this also?), disable the sunroof (I've already inquired about getting my sunroof replaced by an all glass roof), limit max speaker volume, etc. All things which would lead me to feel much more comfortable about my child driving ANY car.
Thats not the same thing as buying them one or it being "their car" (which would never happen).
I can respect that others, as parents, might feel differently. Whatever the reasons, that's fine. But I feel fairly well rounded as a parent and already have one child in college whose attitude and performance in life I think would support the contention that I am raising kids whose heads grow straight.
From Tesla's perspective, I think this would be a valuable capability upgrade for marketing purposes.
Lotsa love to all!