Automobile crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers. Inexperience, youthful exuberance, and constant distractions are some of the many factors that cause teenagers to crash their cars, especially during the first year they receive their license.
Toyota has offered a solution to get teenagers more experience behind the wheel by launching TeenDrive365. The program is designed to help foster better, ongoing communication between parents and teens through engaging online tools, expert advice and tips, local events, and social media.
More recent, Toyota teamed up with Oculus Rift to create a distracted driving simulator. To give the sensation of actual driving, teens are placed behind the wheel of a stationary car and the put on an Oculus Rift headset. Once the headset is on, they are fully immersed in a virtual reality driving simulator complete with the sights and sounds of busy city streets. During the simulation, multiple distractions like noisy friends, text messages, and traffic noises all occur while you have to navigate through busy city streets. Lose focus and the simulator will show you the consequences.
According to Marjorie Schussel, Corporate Marketing Director for Toyota, "Oculus Rift provides a virtual reality driving experience that mirrors real life behind the wheel, giving us a powerful, one-of-a-kind way to show parents and teens how everyday distractions can affect their ability to drive safely."
Essentially, with this virtual driving experience, parents and teens will come out a little wiser to safe driving without endangering their lives or skyrocketing their insurance premium.
Oculus Rift's custom technology allows Toyota TeenDrive365 to offer a virtual experience that surpasses any other distracted driving simulation available to the public.
- 360° head tracking allows you to seamlessly look around. Every subtle movement of your head is tracked in real time creating a natural and intuitive experience.
- Oculus Rift creates a 3D view with excellent depth and scale. Unlike 3D on a television or in a movie, this is achieved by presenting unique and parallel images for each eye. This is the same way your eyes perceive images in the real world, creating a much more natural and comfortable experience.
- Oculus Rift also provides an approximately 100° field of view, stretching the virtual world beyond your peripheral vision.
- RealSpace 3D Audio leverages world-class scientific discovery to add a third dimension to the sound you hear through the virtual placement of sound in 3-D space with pin-point accuracy, creating the perception of real source direction, distance, depth, and movement relative to the listener and heard through standard stereo headphones.
- 3D Audio recreates the auditory ambience of the environment, creating a complete immersive audio experience.
The simulator will be available free of charge at auto shows across the country. As always, be sure to visit Tom Wood Toyota Scion and schedule a test drive to get the Toyota of your dreams.
