Reasons for building a driving simulator are discussed and the most pertinent listed: (1) a simulator will permit research which is unsafe otherwise, (2) it will permit research which cannot be done full scale without inordinate cost and where great expenditure of effort, time, money, lives, and injury has already occurred because research has not been done, (3) it will permit research which is physically impractical by other techniques, (4) it will permit research with a degree of experimental control and available by other techniques, (5) it will present a simulated research program of organized quality, and (6) it will permit a whole new experimental milieu for inquiries into human behavior which have not been researched before. Programming and planning simulator research are discussed. The degree to which an instrument can be viewed as a driving simulator is dependent on at least two things: (1) the intent of the experimenter, which will be reflected to some extent in the perception and behavior of the subject at the controls of the instrument, according to the experimenters instructions, and (2) the objective simularity of the inputs and outputs of the instruments to the driving situation.
Abstract