Would you trust a driver who had only passed their test in a simulator?

[McTav]

Talking to a group of friends the other night, and the conversation turned to Virtual Reality. One of the guys had been at someone's house and tried out their VR headset, doing some driving simulator. He said it was very realistic, and went on to say that he reckons that in 10 years' time all driving tests will be done on VR (instead of an examiner taking you out on the road).

The guys who were there all seemed to think this was a great idea, but I couldn't get my head around it. I wouldn't want someone launched onto the roads who had only demonstrated their ability to drive in a VR simulator.

I can see several advantages:

1. After the initial outlay on machinery, it would be cheaper than employing driving examiners. Presumably you'd still need some instructors to interpret how the person had driven, and for people who can't cope with VR headsets and wanted to do a "real" test, but by and large the computer could do most of the work.

1. Allows them to test your driving in all conditions - the road could be made wet, snowy etc, you could have blinding sunlight, horses or bikes in the road etc, and see how the driver responds. When I did my driving test, it was a November evening at rush hour, chucking it down and the roads were flooded and really busy. My cousin did his at 11am one sunny morning, roads deserted. So it would level the playing field.

1. There would be no examiner bias. When I was at school, we had one examiner at the local test centre who was well-known for giving girls a much tougher test than boys. Literally would not make the boys do any manoeuvres (but would mark the score sheet to say they had done them really well). There are probably much tighter restrictions these days, but presumably the examiner's niece/nephew/best friend's child could still be given an easier ride than others.

1. It would allow motorway driving, which could be tested (though I believe the better option would be to actually let learner drivers on the motorway as long as they're with a qualified instructor who believes they are advanced enough to do it).

I understand all of this, but I still don't think I would be happy for the roads to be filled with drivers who've only been tested in a simulator. But the guys who were with us thought it would be brilliant, and they genuinely believe it will happen in the next decade (they imagine you'd still have to do lessons in an actual car, on the road, but the test would be in a VR simulator).

I can't quite put my finger on why I'd not like it... I think it just wouldn't feel like they'd had a proper test (even though the simulator could test a much wider range of scenarios). Maybe it's because I've never tried VR, so maybe it's a lot more advanced than I imagine.

Would you trust the VR system?

No, absolutely not. It isn't permitted in any other industry that uses simulators for training, and it definitely shouldn't be for driving. There really is no substitute for real life experience, so while simulators may play a part in future driver training, they cannot be the only learning someone does before passing their test.

ZOMBIE THREAD*

I've never passed a driving test - driving terrifies me.

On a simulator, though, I wouldn't be at all nervous because there'd be no consequences to a virtual accident.

So, no, I wouldn't trust it - not realistic.

As mention by a PP in 10 years I don't think humans will be sitting tests because cars will be computer driven.

I think some people on here are minimising the very different types of driving test that already exist in the world! Like a friend of mine did Driver's Ed at her US high school, and subsequently considered herself a perfectly competent driver on the wide, straight, built-for-cars roads of her midwest suburbia. However, she was completely floored when she moved to Ireland, and had to deal with tiny, winding one-track boreens, and narrow city streets that, despite being two-way, have parked cars on one side so that there's only enough space for one.

Similarly, we used to live in the UAE, and my DH passed his driving test there -- a minibus of recently-arrived Indian and Pakistani men and him took it in turns to get into the front beside the tester and drive a few circuits of a flat track in the middle of the desert outside Abu Dhabi, and to each the tester held out his hand and said 'Where is my present?' (Which explains a lot about the driving on the AD to Dubai road...) Virtually all of the other people testing at the same time were planning to work as taxi drivers.)

My point is that there are huge disparities between even real world driving tests. Some US states (Kansas among them, I think?) will issue permits to 14 year old, some countries just let you buy a permit, and don't test at all. Some countries' tests are incredibly hard to pass -- I think Japan has something like a 2/3 failure rate.