We have an 18 year old, and he's never given us any reason not to trust him. You raise them to be responsible, so you have to give them opportunities to demonstrate that they are responsible. (Obviously the kid in this article wasn't, so if a parent has reason to doubt their kid, I guess it's okay to use the device.)
We know our son's friends, we made our house the "hangout" years ago. Pool table, video games, we threw all night LAN parties and other get togethers on a regular basis. We even through parties for the friends and their parents, so we could get to know the parents (I was always surprised the kids were willing to come to a part with their parents, but they did.) Hubby takes our son and his friend's out on the boat on fishing trips, and I always make sure we have "teenage food" on hand, i.e. junk food.
Anyhoo, I think you can give your child incremental limits, as they start to drive, and as they live up to your expectations, and obey your rules, your trust of them grows and the limits decrease.
This device seems a little "over the top" in the area of control to me. Just because some place is 4 miles away doesn't necessarily mean you're going to drive only 4 miles to get there. What if you need gas, or a traffic jam, etc, and you take a detour.
If somebody really doesn't trust their kid there's a lot easier way to monitor their whereabouts. Just give them a cell phone with a camera. If they say they're going to Starbucks, call them and ask them to snap a photo of their surroundings and send it to you.
We still insist on knowing where our 18 is planning on going, calling us if his plans might change, and him letting us know when he'll be coming in (after all he does live in our home) but relying on a high tech device to discover if my kid is being responsible or not, we're not going there, as long as he doesn't give us a reason not to trust him.
Our daughter figured out how to beat that. She came up with the bright idea of storing pictures in her camera phone of various places she frequents, so she'd always have one ready to send.
I wasn't about to fall for that one. I usually have her call from a landline when she gets to where she's going, not her cell phone.
Well, in this case, it does seem that the daughter lied. I'm not sure I'd blow the surveillance over going to a party versus a friend's house. Did the daughter come home impaired? Were these kids she absolutely was not supposed to be around?
I expect that my children (boys, 14 and 8) will try to lie about stuff. I have explained to the oldest that even if he has screwed up and ended in a place he should not be, he can ALWAYS ask for our help. There may or may not be consequences, depending upon the lesson involved. For example, if he drove with a friend to a party where there was drinking (not allowed) and the friend got drunk and drove them home, my son would be grounded forever. If he called us to pick him up, there probably wouldn't be a consequence.
I will want to know if my teenaged driver is driving at high speeds. There just aren't enough adults around here willing to come and tell me that my son is driving like a maniac.