Motoxrdude
Active Member
Heh, video games cant simulate well enough right now. Once you drive for the first time, you will see what i am talking about. Just go in a empty parking lot and practice.
learn driving: play games
- Thread starter diroga
- Start date
In some driving simulations you are surrounded by projections screens while sitting in a mock auto to get the "visual" experience of what driving is like. For most the best advice is to go through a driving school with an experienced driving instructor that can "grab the wheel" when you goof up!
4W4K3 said:Anyone can be a "safe" driver, even if they've been driving for 5 minutes. I think the term you were looking for (or one that fits better) is "experienced" driver.
Wait until you've been on the road for a few years under various conditions in a variety of vehicles before making the assumption that even those with only 5 minutes of driving time can be safe drivers. It takes time and experience both to learn safe driving habits. Most accidents are generally caused surprisingly by what? New drivers with too much confidence!
SFR
Truth fears no questions
I agree with PC eye.
One of the most important, and also most difficult task is driving defensively. Many times you are put in a situation in which you need to make a split second decision. While I agree that experience helps those split second decisions, a lot of the time, placing yourself in a situation before you have to make that decision is the difference between getting in an accident and almost getting in an accident.
For instance... Today on the highway I was going about 75 miles an hour. Everything was fine and the guy in front of me quickly taped his breaks... for some reason I remembered that he had not pressed his breaks for miles.. so I started slowing down even more than I normally would have. A few second later he SLAMMED on his breaks... if I would have continued at my earlier speed I most certainly would not have been able to slow down in time and would have had to change lanes or... But, because I made a decision a few seconds before, based on something I picked up on his driving, I was fine.
A lot of driving is subconscious reactions. Looking ahead... using all of your mirrors, paying attention to how people around you are driving... all of those things take practice. But, even the most experienced and technically sound drivers get in horrible accidents.. Many times, its just out of your control
Anyway, as for the original topic... There are very few simulations that actually compare to the real thing. Take for instance flight simulations for pilots especially the military.. those million dollar simulators actually help pilots before they go in a real aircraft. The games and simulators we have our hands on will not be able to help you. diroga, you need to either have a parent teach your or hire a professional. Its incredible fun but can also be scary!
One of the most important, and also most difficult task is driving defensively. Many times you are put in a situation in which you need to make a split second decision. While I agree that experience helps those split second decisions, a lot of the time, placing yourself in a situation before you have to make that decision is the difference between getting in an accident and almost getting in an accident.
For instance... Today on the highway I was going about 75 miles an hour. Everything was fine and the guy in front of me quickly taped his breaks... for some reason I remembered that he had not pressed his breaks for miles.. so I started slowing down even more than I normally would have. A few second later he SLAMMED on his breaks... if I would have continued at my earlier speed I most certainly would not have been able to slow down in time and would have had to change lanes or... But, because I made a decision a few seconds before, based on something I picked up on his driving, I was fine.
A lot of driving is subconscious reactions. Looking ahead... using all of your mirrors, paying attention to how people around you are driving... all of those things take practice. But, even the most experienced and technically sound drivers get in horrible accidents.. Many times, its just out of your control
Anyway, as for the original topic... There are very few simulations that actually compare to the real thing. Take for instance flight simulations for pilots especially the military.. those million dollar simulators actually help pilots before they go in a real aircraft. The games and simulators we have our hands on will not be able to help you. diroga, you need to either have a parent teach your or hire a professional. Its incredible fun but can also be scary!
This goes back to what I was saying about driving becoming "second nature" in that you have to develop a second brain that works without you even knowing it is there in a figurative sense. And SFR is quite correct about things happening even to those with many years even decades of experience. It only takes "one thing" to distract you just long enough to get into one. If you are busy looking at the radio dial or popping in a cd or increasingly on a cell phone too many things can happen all too fast. You have to be FULLY AWARE of all of your surrounding at all times or.... ???!
speedyink
VIP Member
I've been driving for 3 years now, but I got used to it a couple months after I started. It's easy once you've done it for a bit. It just becomes second nature. Driving games don't give you much in the sense of anything. Cars give you a sense of speed, a sense of force, and a sense of danger. Driving games fail to give you all senses, since there is no real consequence if you crash. Practice in a parking lot. You can use driving games such as midtown madness and GTA(if you follow the rules) to practice road rules such as follow street lights and stop signs, and looking for cars about the cross, But for driving mechanics, nothing will work like the real thing.
"Cars give you a sense"? In general terms you have to develop a "sense". When you start out(preferrably supervised by instructor) you start with places with light traffic, side streets at slow speeds, and generally getting acquainted with the various things like adjusting mirrors to get used to the "quick glance", backing up the vehicle into parking spots, etc. A game on the other hand gives you reflex time in a virtual not actual environment. With some a need for developing reflex response time can be sharpened while others need to be right in the traffic itself to get the same results.
.AWWH GEE? Then you take the fun out of it! You are supposed to learn from a few.... "mistakes"? when you are first learning. Like driving on that dark and winding road with snow covering everything even the ice and some dummy wearing a white pair of pants, white t-shirt, and a dark blue wind breaker walks in your lane right when an "S" turn is there and you miss him by inches when you just bearly see the outline of the jacket. errrrrr... rrrmmm... crunch. At those times you can spin in circles. And then there's the small child that runs out right in front of you in a residential area on slippery roads and "BUMP"! My waist line hurt for awhile when I pulled that stunt. A little further and I would have been a 5yr. old pancake! You just never know.
. Oh, and this has happened twice now...Gosh I thought doing the 55 sideways on the interstate was fun with about 3ft of snow on the ground with a Mustang II 302 under the hood. I took one of those Dodge Dakotas down that same stretch at 70 with the Good Year Wrangler AT tires and stopped on a dime with black ice on the way down a steep exit. Anything else would have been all over the place. Those are things you generally don't want to see.