The University of Rhode Island’s Transportation Center has bought a simulator that can mimic numerous vehicles while confronting its human “driver” with strikingly realistic situations — some routine, but some of them crises such as a car running a stop sign and charging in front of the fire truck you’re driving. You must step on the brakes as fast as in real traffic. The fire truck stops, eventually...

...The simulator is centered on three large video display screens. Close in front of the screens is a driver’s seat and the normal controls and instruments — accelerator and brake pedals, speedometer, gearshift lever, even an ignition key. A computer-equipped operator sits behind the driver, changing vehicle type and behavior and inserting challenges such as imprudent pedestrians, bad visibility or an icy road. 

Full Story: URI will use new driver simulator for research, training Source: Providence Journal, May 27th, 2009 Author: Bruce Landis Added on May 27th, 2009 at 9:55 am, by Matt Mikula