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VR gets you a driver's license faster?

Darius
Honored Guest
This weekend I have been experimenting with the DK2 + Logitech G27 steering set and games like LFS and EuroTruck Sim 2. The simulated environment feels so natural and 'real' that I was wondering if you let kids/teens practice their driving skills in it, they would truly have an advantage if they start taking real lessons for their license? If so, then it means with VR we are indeed able to learn certain skills far more quicker than ever before. Think about the impact on some professions. Can you really learn to fly a plane with a sophisticated flight sim by practicing in your own home? Learn to dive?
27 REPLIES 27

Altephfour
Explorer
Could have the opposite effect too though. Kids growing up driving in a simulator environment with no rules might make them forget that in real life, those rules are there for a reason. What happens when the daydream intrudes on real life and some kid drives into a wall because he forgot he couldn't respawn. We'll have to see how this works out.

hudcrab
Honored Guest
You won't get very far in EuroTruck if you don't obey the rules of the road

mta
Honored Guest
It might help a bit, but...

1. the controls would need to be in the same place...handbrake, indicators, lights, wipers, pedals etc...

2. You would need to be familiar with the routes that they take you on

3. It would also have to be multiplayer, AI is nowhere near enough to prepare you for what other drivers do.

4. Passing a driving test is different from real life driving

On a test you get instructions where you need to perform several manoeuvres under close scrutiny, under pressure. Your driving instructor is only interested in those 40 minutes, and will only prepare you for that. When I passed my instructor said "you've passed the test. now you need to learn to drive."

vonFelty
Honored Guest
One thing that Euro Truck 2 has taught me is that backing up with a trailer is hard. I have so much more respect for the skill of truck drivers now that make deliveries.

I suspect if I ever learn to back up into one of those spots instead of hitting the enter cop-out, I may have the skills to be a truck driver in real life. Though I don't know if I'd really want to be a truck driver in real l ife.

saviornt
Protege
It would help, yes. It is the same basic principle as letting pilots fly in simulators and letting soldiers train in combat simulators.

However, it cannot be used as a replacement, only as a supplement, for the actual "task" at hand, whatever it may be.
Current WIPs using Unreal Engine 4: Agrona - Tales of an Era: Medieval Fantasy MORPG

Knogen
Explorer
I can se driving schools using VR during driving lessons. The teacher and student wears HMDs and can see each other in a virtual v
environment (car). The student will face different situations and get instant feedback from the teacher...

Vrally
Protege
In Finland you can take one part of your mandatory lessons in a simulator instead of doing real driving.

The reason can be explained as follows. Since a couple of years you are required to take a lesson on night driving. But since Finland is situated quite far north, real night can not be found during the summer part of the year. Also it is quite expensive to have driver instructors work the grave yard shift.

So they have made it possible to take the lesson in a simulator such as this:

Gigantoad
Adventurer
"hudcrab" wrote:
You won't get very far in EuroTruck if you don't obey the rules of the road


Please 🙂 I've always been speeding my ass off in that game, passing everyone left and right, not caring one bit about speed tickets and of course disregarding red lights. You do get extremely far like that.

Alci
Honored Guest
"Knogen" wrote:
I can se driving schools using VR during driving lessons. The teacher and student wears HMDs and can see each other in a virtual v
environment (car). The student will face different situations and get instant feedback from the teacher...

except the very same actually works with pictures. And neither will prepare you for real driving. It can only be part of theoretical part which usually takes only few before anyone let you drive real car for the first time.

And no. ETS2 is not 'simulator' of trucks. It simply disobey too many crucial elements of driving. Even such basics as cargo mass and structure, realistic brakes or even real gearing. It's for driving as Sniper Elite 2 is for shooting. It's a game 🙂

And before somebody asks. No, don't plan your real trip from Poland to Germany with ETS2 maps 🙂