Driving simulator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Driving Simulators are used for entertainment as well as in training of driver's education courses taught in educational institutions and private businesses. They are also used for research purposes in the area of human factors and medical research, to monitor driver behavior, performance, and attention and in the car industry to design and evaluate new vehicles or new advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
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[edit] Entertainment
Advances in processing power have led to more realistic simulators in recent years, beginning with the groundbreaking Grand Prix Legends for the PC, released in 1998. This is followed by many kinds of games like Need for Speed.
Occasionally, a racing game or driving simulator will also include an attachable steering wheel that can be used to play the game in replace of a controller. The wheel, which is usually plastic, may also include brakes to add to the game's reality. These wheels are usually used only for computer games.
In addition to the myriad commercial releases there is a bustling community of amateur coders working on closed and open source free simulators. Some of the major features popular with fans of the genre are online racing, realism and diversity of cars and tracks.
[edit] Education
Driving Simulators are also used in serious businesses of test driving, helping drivers realise their driving mistakes and improve their reaction time to road hazards without having to encounter a real life accident.
[edit] Research
Driving simulators are used at research facilities for many purposes. Some vehicle manufacturers operate driving simulators. Many universities also operate simulators for research. In addition to studying driver training issues, driving simulators allow researchers to study driver behavior under conditions in which it would be illegal and/or unethical to place drivers. For instance, studies of driver distraction would be dangerous and unethical (because of the inability to obtain informed consent from other drivers) to do on the road.
With the increasing use of various in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) such as satellite navigation systems, cell phones, DVD players and e-mail systems, simulators are playing an important rule in assessing the safety and utility of such devices.
There is a question of validity -- whether results obtained in the simulator are applicable to real-world driving. Given the inability to replicate some simulator studies on the road, this is likely to remain an issue for some time.
