Imagine your car suddenly losing traction on a wet highway or a vehicle stopping abruptly just inches from your front bumper. In those split seconds, knowing the rules of the road isn’t enough. You need muscle memory and vehicle know-how to handle an emergency.
This is why newly permitted and licensed teen drivers are especially vulnerable: They lack the experience that seasoned drivers take for granted. The Ford Driving Skills for Life (DSFL) program was created to help them build confidence, develop good driving behaviors, and master the quick, smart decisions that help keep our roads safe.
The Power of Experiential Learning
I first got involved with DSFL back in 2003 as a part-time right-seat instructor and group speaker. Over the years, my belief in the program’s research-backed mission and approach has only deepened. The best — and safest — way for new drivers to gain the experience they need is to get behind the wheel in a controlled environment.
In our clinics, we don’t just tell students what to do; we show them. They get to safely push limits, make mistakes, and pressure test their driving decisions on a controlled course. This means experiencing what a skid actually feels like and practicing how to recover.
It means seeing firsthand how distractions like phones impact their response times to pedestrians, cyclists, or sudden obstacles. They also learn how to interact with their vehicle’s safety features, from antilock braking to current ADAS features like lane keeping and intelligent speed assist.
Kansas resident Casey Wallace saw this in action when her daughter Jensen attended our Kansas City clinic. “The driving instructor took the time to explain the ‘why’ behind everything — from what to do in an accident to how to properly use all the safety features in the vehicle," she said. "It was far more information than traditional driver’s ed.”
By giving students the ability to learn by doing, DSFL provides an immersive experience that no online class or driver education manual can replicate. “We were recently on the road in the rain and Jensen explained how to brake if the car hydroplanes,” Casey said. “Knowing that she came away with so many ways to be a more defensive driver gives me much less anxiety as a parent.”
“Knowing that she came away with so many ways to be a more defensive driver gives me much less anxiety as a parent.”Casey Wallace, mom of DSFL student
Our goal is twofold: to try to reduce risky behaviors and help teens build the skills they need to stay safe and drive with the confidence that comes with practice. And stories like Casey and Jensen’s are why we do this work.
“What she took away from the course surpassed my expectations,” Casey said. “She came home excited to tell us about the car’s safety features, how to navigate in different situations, and was just overall more confident behind the wheel.”
Casey found the course to be such a positive experience that she’s already planning to send her younger child to the next clinic.
Impact That Lasts
Watching a teen driver gain new confidence is a very rewarding part of what we do. I vividly recall a young woman from our Summer Tour a few years back who felt incredibly nervous and was hesitant to participate. She’d been in a collision recently and was still feeling a real sense of trauma.
She gathered her courage, and when she came up to thank me at the end of the day, I could feel the sincerity in her voice. While she didn’t become a perfect driver in one afternoon, the DSFL team put her on the right path and gave her the tools to overcome her fear.
And DSFL doesn’t just train teenagers. Parents are a singularly important influencing factor on their kids’ driving, with research showing that teens whose parents more closely monitor their driving tend to take fewer risks behind the wheel. Because of this, we focus on teaching parents how to be better coaches, too. Arming them with helpful instruction techniques extends the impact of the program far beyond a single day on the course.
Making Our Roads Safer for All
For more than 20 years, Ford Philanthropy has supported DSFL in bringing nationally acclaimed training to communities across the country. New this year, the schedule of the courses is often tied to local events that highlight the connection between precision driving and safe driving.
In early June, students got to test their skills at Dearborn Proving Ground in Michigan, and we also recently hosted a clinic just ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series in Kansas City. Next, we’ll bring Ford Driving Skills for Life to San Diego, giving teens from the local military and veteran community near Camp Pendleton the opportunity to take the course on the same weekend that NASCAR comes to the nearby Coronado Naval Base.
When I was younger, I was fortunate to work with several up-and-coming and full-time NASCAR drivers to help them sharpen their road course racing skills. Connecting Ford Driving Skills for Life with the excitement of race weekends is a great reminder that even the fastest, most experienced drivers never stop learning — and that they rely on the same fundamentals of safety, focus, and vehicle control that students practice in our clinics.
Driver safety has always been an important priority for Ford. With DSFL being offered in many of our plant cities, including Marshall, Michigan, and West Tennessee, this program helps protect everyone on local roads. And thanks to the support and partnership of Ford Philanthropy and the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), we’re able to bring DSFL to communities all across America.
Mike Speck is the manager and lead instructor of Ford Driving Skills for Life.
