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| The VDI Street Ready Driving Simulator |
Because it's safe, cost effective and it works.
If a 20 year old joins the Marines, graduates from boot camp and is assigned a job as a Humvee driver, the Marine Corps doesn't care if the kid has been licensed by the state to drive for 4 years. The USMC teaches them to drive in a simulator. Our armed services use simulators, because they are safe, cost effective and they work.
Few if any driving schools use simulators to teach new drivers. (we are the first in California) Why? Because most driving schools are about one thing and one thing only. Collecting the money for the DMV mandated 6 hours of required training. We've had young drivers show up who had all the required training at another school and had never been on the Freeway! Learning to drive on a Freeway is not required by the DMV!
When a teen finishes with 18 hours of simulator training, we feel confident that they can drive a real car and then we can begin teaching them the nuances of safe, defensive driving because we don't have to waste time teaching them to get out of the parking lot!
I talked with the mother of a student driver the other day, her son has taken one lesson at another school, that was 3 and half weeks ago and the 2nd lesson wasn't scheduled for another 2 weeks. 6 weeks between lessons, try that when you're learning to play the piano or swim or make the soccer team.
Our simulators are in a clean, quiet, cool room, but with the click of a mouse it can be raining, snowing, daytime, nighttime or even foggy just like is on our beautiful coast from time to time. The simulator programs can put them in dangerous situations without putting them in danger. Better yet the simulator teaches the student how to deal with a dangerous situation in the proper way.
I've had operators of other driving schools laugh at our investment in simulators, then again they haven't seen a 15 year old girl who after completing her simulator training get behind the wheel of a real car and drive better than one of their students who have been taking behind the wheel lessons for hours and hours and are barely up to the task of making an unprotected left turn!
R. Christy, Thanks for your time.
http://www.drive-driverstraining.com/
Excellent! You are using a 21st C mindset here. Well done.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, really. Our children learned to drive in an empty parking lot with their father, where they could swear with impunity. But I prefer the simulator.
ReplyDeleteOver from Oddball. I enjoy your blog. Will be back.