“Most people don’t get killed parallel parking"

Empathy with one's parents becomes particularly acute when one tries to teach a teen to drive. Advances in technology, psychology, risk analysis, and education, however, can make this "rite of child-rearing" more bearable and beneficial:

researchers placed video equipment in 50 parents’ cars during supervised driving. They found much of parents’ instruction focused on vehicle handling, says Arthur Goodwin, a senior research associate at the Highway Safety Research Center, who led the study. Parents also tended to stick to routine daytime driving along familiar routes, Mr. Goodwin says. Parents’ instruction tapered off after teens learned basic vehicle-handling skills.

Few parents went on to teach higher-order driving skills, such as spotting and avoiding potential hazards, according to the study, published in March in Accident Analysis and Prevention. Many parents aren’t even conscious that they exercise these skills, such as slowing when approaching a crosswalk where pedestrians might appear, Mr. Goodwin says.

Parents tend to drill teens on maneuvers that gave them the most trouble when they learned to drive, such as parallel parking. “Most people don’t get killed parallel parking,” says Deborah Hersman, president of the National Safety Council. “The most important things parents can teach teens are how to develop hazard recognition and judgment—making the left turns into oncoming traffic, how to merge on and off highways at high speed.”

The studies' recommendations:

Do have teens practice on progressively harder roads, from quiet streets to busy highways.

Practice at night and in rain or snow.

Do coach teens to avoid glancing away from the road for more than two seconds.

Don’t bring up sticky issues while your teen is driving, such as poor grades.

Don’t tell the teen what is wrong in sweeping terms, such as “You’re always in too much of a hurry” or “You never listen.”

In other words, parents should be more communicative without being judgmental. The outcomes may be better, but the dreaded rite of child-rearing is still stressful. Personally, driverless cars can't come soon enough for me.