AutoSim makes a break trough in driver safety training for novice drivers by the use of "true scale" driving simulator
[February 2001]

On the 21st of February this year, the Secretary of State for Transportation in Norway, Eirin Sund officially opened SimSenter AS in Tromsø, a company founded by AutoSim and local investors.

The main business idea for SimSenter is to deliver effective safety training to novice drivers. A specialised introduction course has been developed in collaboration with SINTEF in Trondheim and the local office of the Traffic Authority in Norway. SimSenter will also deliver advanced driver safety training to disable drivers, to elderly drivers, to the police and to rescue and ambulance drivers. The introduction training includes:

1. Getting familiar to the Car
   The main purpose is to train on the operation of steering, gear, brake, accelerator, and other functional equipment. The course includes both a theoretical and a practical part, and has additional modules if needed for the perfection.
2. Driving in Traffic
   The goal for this module is to let 16 years old novice drivers experience some of the challenges in driving, and to learn that training leads to profession and safety in the participation in traffic. The course include a theoretical as well as a practical driving part in the simulator. The training session ends by discussing a video that has been recorded from the driving.
3. Risk Training
   The main goal is to experience strange and risky situations at an early stage of the learning. This will enable the students to later recognise the preface of such situations in the real traffic and then be able to avoid them.

Additionally SimSenter will provide specialised courses in issues like take over situations, roundabouts, risk on countryside roads, highways, and even driving in foreign countries.

In a research project at SINTEF, young people gave the AutoSim Car Simulator a score of 5.5 on a scale 1 to 7 in the experience of realism. Simulator sickness was not a problem, and more than 90 % of the youngsters had a positive experience and wanted to come back for more training.

The true scale and high realism AutoSim simulator will now be fully integrated in the driver training in Norway. Not as a replacement for the school car, but in a way that utilizes the strongest effects, namely the ability to influence young peoples mind in the direction of safety and care ness in traffic.

SimSenter AS will act as the laboratory of this new revolutionary driver training.