Learning to drive a car is one of the most satisfying tasks a man can have during a lifetime. The feeling of being in charge of an automobile is priceless, which is why a lot of young boys want to make it happen as soon as possible.
Video games become more and more important in our lives and for good reasons. They even become more and more realistic. Gone are the days when the vast majority of gamers were children. As for nowadays, it’s something usual for adults to play video games as well.
Therefore, here’s the million-dollar question: can we actually learn how to drive from video games, given that they’ve become so realistic? We might be tempted to say, “Yes, definitely,” but actually, it can be a lot harder to provide a certain response than it seems. Let’s cut to the chase:
There’s nothing like the real deal
Video games cannot possibly replace traditional driver’s education courses, nor can they fully simulate the real driving experience. That’s the harsh truth, and we need to accept it.
However, even though video games are still not advanced enough to perfectly simulate and teach us how to drive a car, they can still complement and enhance the learning process in a few ways.
Let’s not forget that a lot of modern driving simulators out there offer incredibly realistic representations of driving physics, traffic scenarios, and road conditions. Games such as Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo, or Assetto Corsa meticulously recreate the sensation of driving, allowing the player to develop a better understanding of handling and controlling the automobile.
Driving simulators often bring a variety of driving scenarios and challenges for the player to benefit from, ranging from basic maneuvers such as parking the car and lane changing to more advanced techniques such as navigating complex intersections and defensive driving. If you practice such scenarios in a virtual environment, it’s obvious that you can still get some level of experience and confidence before hitting the road out there in real life.
Video games can make you more alert
Driving simulation video games can also help players improve reaction times, decision-making skills, and spatial awareness. All of these are essential traits when it comes to safe and responsible driving. Whether you navigate tight corners on a race track or you dodge obstacles in a high-speed chase, you must learn to anticipate hazards and react accordingly. When you’re behind the wheel, you must make split-second decisions, and video games can lend you a little helping hand, for that matter, even though they cannot fully simulate the driving experience.
You got the idea, in the end: a perfect simulation of the driving experience through video games is impossible, and it must stay that way. People who want to get their driver’s licenses should only opt for professional methods and not rely on what they see in video games. Learning to drive from games such as GTA 5 is obviously a joke. But even so, video games involving driving cars can still teach us a thing or two about driving, or at least they can make us practice our level of alertness.
Tim M. Hill helped bring Digital-Overload from a weekly newsletter to a full-fledged news site by creating a new website and branding. He continues to assist in keeping the site responsive and well organized for the readers. As a writer to Digital-Overload, Tim mainly covers mobile news and gadgets.
