Another Driving Simulator

BACK IN JANUARY WE TOLD YOU ABOUT THE DRIVING SIMULATORS used for emergency driver training made by the Doron Precision Systems (HERE).  Today we’ll tell you about another brand that we recently learned about.

The MPRI Simulations Group, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, makes a wide range of life-like simulators for dozens of different vehicles, from large military vehicles to tractor-trailer rigs, and police cars and ambulances.

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Ian Gillespie of the London (Ontario) Free Press tried one out and he reports:

 (T)he DriveSafe Simulator puts the driver in a full-size seat in front of a detailed dashboard with a brake, accelerator, clutch and shifter (although it can easily be set to automatic transmission mode).

The user is surrounded by three 42-inch colour wrap-around screens that simulate a motorist’s ever-changing environment, including rear-view mirrors, gauges and a vibrating steering wheel.

The simulator also offers an astonishing array of settings, including more than 240 different types of vehicles (including ambulance, fire truck and snow plow), 60 different engine/transmission combinations, a variety of different driving environments (including urban, suburban, rural and freeway), vehicle circumstances (a flat tire or failed brakes, for instance) and weather conditions (including various levels of rain, fog, ice and snow).

The simulator was recently used by fire department officials in Windsor, Ontario, to help them reconstruct the circumstances that contributed to an incident where a fire truck, responding to an emergency call, was T-boned by another vehicle while travelling through an intersection.

They ran 80 drivers through the same scenario; almost half failed to avoid the collision on their first attempt. 

MPRI says that their FireSim Driving Simulator has the following features:

• Choose between fire truck or EMT vehicles
• Realistic driving environments train drivers how to recognize and anticipate hazardous   driving situations (180° view, using 3-channels, with 1024 x 768 image resolution)
• High refresh & update rates provide smooth image flow during any drive, at common   speeds (72 Hz update rate), creating comfortable training environments
• Glass dash in the simulator adds greater flexibility in replicating various types of   vehicles gauges
• SimCommander provides a user-friendly environment, via a touch screen, from which   the instructor controls the training process
• Truck like training environment; seat, steering wheel, brake,
• clutch and accelerator pedals, enhancing retention and application to the road

This looks to be a very good machine, also.  It certainly looks worth checking into before you buy one.

Read Ian Gillespie’s report HERE.
MPRI’s website with full information is HERE.