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Ford Driving Skills for Life

Vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States and much of the world. Ford Driving Skills for Life provides education and innovation to address the many safety issues faced by all new drivers. Ford Driving Skills for Life works with leading safety organizations to offer free, hands-on driver training, a web-based curriculum, and state-of-the-art equipment to bridge the experience gap and help new drivers develop essential safety skills. Now in its 15th year, Ford Driving Skills for Life is active in 40 countries and has reached more than one million drivers worldwide since 2003.

“Continuing to drive out of it instead of just slamming on my brakes caused considerably more damage on the passenger side of my car, but I was safe and able to walk away after the accident…The Ford DSFL program really does save lives and it just may have saved mine.”

Hazard Recognition

The program teaches students techniques that extend beyond the basics they learned in drivers’ education, including the point of no return, minimum vision lead time and how to scan for trouble.

Impaired Driving Simulation Course

Any reputable teen safe driving program must address both inexperience and impaired and distracted driving. Our impaired driving simulation shows students the effects of impaired driving.

Hands-On and Web-Based

The entire curriculum is available at no cost, and the results over the past ten years have been outstanding. For the best results, we encourage teens and parents to take the course together.

 

Ford DSFL is a free, hands-on driver training program that helps teens develop essential skills in several key areas - speed & space management, vehicle handling, hazard recognition and driver distraction. These situations present the most problems for new drivers and contribute to more than 60 percent of teen crashes – the number-1 cause of death for American teenagers

Driving Skills

Hazard Recognition
The point of no return
How to scan for trouble
Minimizing distractions
Safety zones
Minimum vision lead time
Approaching and turning left at intersection

Vehicle Handling
Contact road patches
How acceleration, deceleration, braking and turns affect vehicle balance
Adjusting to a vehicle's size and weight
How to recover from skids in front- and rear-wheel drive vehicles

Speed Management
Driving at a speed that doesn't endanger or impede others
Using proper signals and covering the brake
Conventional braking systems versus anti-lock braking (ABS) systems
Emergency braking techniques

Space Management
Maintaining space around, ahead of and behind your vehicle
Learning how to adjust speed
Maintaining a safe distance between vehicles
How to avoid being rear-ended and avoiding a head-on crash

Distracted and Impaired Driving
Both distracted driving and impaired driving are addressed in both the hands-on and web-based curriculum

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