By Brelaun Douglas (NNPA/DTU Fellow/The Atlanta Voice)

The 2016 Chevy Malibu Hybrid is definitely not your parents’ old Malibu.

Recently, Chevrolet invited a select group of journalists and bloggers from across the country to Santa Barbara, Calif., to test-drive the new Malibu hybrid and to discover what separates the 2016 model from its predecessors.

The Malibu has features that would make any parent happy, including an option that mutes the radio until driver and passenger seatbelts are buckled, speed warnings, a volume limit and access to a report card of their teenager’s driving habits. But for millennials who have outgrown the ever-watching eye of their parents, the 2016 Malibu is less of an informant and more like riding around inside of a smart phone.

As you drive along the Pacific Coast Highway into Malibu, you’ll find miles of beautiful water, rocky hills and scenery that you’ll want to capture forever on camera and video.

USB ports, available in both the front and backseat consoles, keep phones from dying. The car also includes MyLink with Android and Apple CarPlay, mobile apps that provide hands free access to text messages, music and navigation to the final destination. Like previous generations, millennials are no different when it comes to loving their music, especially in the car. Pandora, a leading online music streaming service, is also featured in the car so that drivers can play music by their favorite artists whenever they want.

One of the best features in the car is the 4G LTE Wi-Fi inside of the vehicle. This car also allows up to seven devices to connect at once making the ride for passengers more data–friendly.

According to “U.S. News and World Report,” the Malibu gets 47 mpg on the street and 46 mpg on the highway so there was no need to stop for gas along the way and with lane change alerts, adaptive cruise control and parking assistance, driving the car was a technological advancement in itself.

Brelaun Douglas is a 2016 NNPA “Discover The Unexpected” journalism fellow at The Atlanta Voice. The “Discover The Unexpected” journalism fellowship program is sponsored by Chevrolet. Check out more stories by the fellows by following the hashtag #DiscoverTheUnexpected on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about the program at www.nnpa.org/dtu.