I sent the following to the Star Tribune on 1999-07-15. I don’t think it was published. The link to inrets.fr still exists but the link to ccad.uiowa.edu does not.
"Unreal games" reminded me of many earlier thoughts I've had about driving simulation. When I tried Silicon Motor Speedway at the Mall of America, I thought that its technology could be used to give more rigorous driving tests. When I read about Unreal's software engine https://www.unrealengine.com/what-is-unreal-engine-4, I thought that this technology would be even better for a driving test.
States will probably continue to test applicants in real cars in artificial environments for many decades. But what if insurance companies tested their customers in artificial cars with a seemingly realistic environment? Instead of only stopping for a stop sign, keeping in the lane, turning correctly, what if
drivers could be tested on how close they followed, how well they could stop when a ball rolled into the street, how well they could drive at night, how well they could do in dozens of situations they would encounter on real streets.
As an inducement for drivers to take the test, the insurance companies would lower drivers' premiums according to how well they did on the test. Even if some drivers aced the test but continued many bad habits and attitudes, wouldn't they have gained some small change in behavior and skill?
To check on how far the technology has come, I searched the web for "driving simulator" and "driving simulations", I received 1300 references (via HotBot). Clicking on the very first item (http://www.inrets.fr/ur/sara/drifac_e.htm) I found a wealth of other links. One was a Driving Simulation Conference in Paris, France this past week. Another was a set of abstracts of papers written at the Center for Computer-Aided Design at the University of Iowa; these discussed many of the problems of driving simulation and solutions already found (http://www.ccad.uiowa.edu/research/ids/technical-papers/). Other links were to a few software packages from around the world.
In what I did visit, I found government and auto manufacturer sponsors, but no insurance companies. I reduced the selection by adding "insurance" and still had 830 finds. The first twenty didn't look promising other than some school districts' driver education programs were mentioned.
Considering what I found in a few minutes was far more than I had read about recently, insurance companies and others in a position to test drivers may be doing more than I know. For the sake of safety and comfort on the roads for all us, let's hope that someone, somewhere has already taken steps to increase dramatically the number of good, defensive drivers.
Showing posts with label driver training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label driver training. Show all posts
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Friday, July 17, 2009
"They" are out to get me
Several days ago, I pulled up to a stop sign and planned to turn right. I looked both ways, looking to my left last. Just as I started moving, a car coming fast from my right cut the corner right in front of me, driving over the near side of the crosswalk.
A couple days the later the same thing happened at another intersection. The driver was driving with one hand and holding a coffee cup in the other. She looked at me as if to say, "What are you doing in my lane?"
This past Monday I was crossing Lake Ave. on Superior St. with the pedestrian light in my favor. A car came roaring up to and over the cross walk just as I was in its path. I hollered, "Hey! This is a crosswalk!" I was tempted to walk over to the driver and point out that one stops at the heavy white line before the crosswalk, not in the middle of the crosswalk. But I didn't; I just kept going while my heart slowed down.
Are "they" after me? No, I think not. But there are too many drivers that think they are the only people in the world and their actions have no affect on others. You can see this in people that pull over the crosswalk when a bus or truck is obviously going to turn in their direction. You can see it in people who keep driving fast in a parking lot even when the driver of a backing vehicle can't see them. You can see it when people enter an intersection without checking even though a siren is wailing in the area.
Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't require regular refresher driver training for people under 55.
A couple days the later the same thing happened at another intersection. The driver was driving with one hand and holding a coffee cup in the other. She looked at me as if to say, "What are you doing in my lane?"
This past Monday I was crossing Lake Ave. on Superior St. with the pedestrian light in my favor. A car came roaring up to and over the cross walk just as I was in its path. I hollered, "Hey! This is a crosswalk!" I was tempted to walk over to the driver and point out that one stops at the heavy white line before the crosswalk, not in the middle of the crosswalk. But I didn't; I just kept going while my heart slowed down.
Are "they" after me? No, I think not. But there are too many drivers that think they are the only people in the world and their actions have no affect on others. You can see this in people that pull over the crosswalk when a bus or truck is obviously going to turn in their direction. You can see it in people who keep driving fast in a parking lot even when the driver of a backing vehicle can't see them. You can see it when people enter an intersection without checking even though a siren is wailing in the area.
Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't require regular refresher driver training for people under 55.
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