Imagine cruising down the road again after a major accident or injury that impaired your mobility. Or experiencing what driving feels like for the first time — when you weren’t sure you’d ever get to do it.

At DriveSafety, we’re honored to be able to deliver those experiences to patients at Sacred Heart University (SHU). Their occupational therapy program now includes our DriveSafety RS 600 driving simulator, which offers the unique ability to create purpose-built driving scenarios. It will play an important role for many of their patients looking to regain independence and mobility by practicing their driving skills.

There are many reasons why driving simulators are used, but most importantly, they help individuals with functional impairments experience the open (or traffic-congested!) road. Occupational therapy patients typically use the driving simulator after accidents or trauma. Age, developmental disabilities, or medical conditions such as autism may also cause functional impairments that require the patients to practice driving skills in a safe environment. Veterans who return from service with injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can benefit from this additional training and driving rehab as well.

Our DriveSafety RS 600 simulator can aid a broad range of patients in preparing for on-road assessments in the future. The driving simulator features a partial cab modeled after a Ford Focus sedan. It provides an immersive experience for the person in the driver’s seat and enables them to travel through realistic virtual reality roadway environments to hone their driving skills. The simulator uses autonomous ‘smart’ models for interactive traffic, and it can even include scripted behavior models or events that trigger behaviors.
“It delivers a real-life experience in a safe, off-road environment,” Sheelagh Schlegel, assistant professor of occupational therapy at SHU, said. “Our simulator has hand controls, which enables drivers to get accustomed to driving without using their feet before trying it out on the road, and it also has an actual car frame, which gives students an opportunity to learn how to transfer people out of a car.”

Located in the Occupational Therapy Home Suite laboratory at SHU’s Center for Healthcare Education, the simulator is part of a larger space featuring a fully equipped home suite for patients and students. It provides the ability for patients to practice important life skills —like driving — with the help of professionals. It also gives SHU students valuable clinical experience. SHU offers free screening and training sessions in the driving simulator for stroke patients and teens in the Cooperative Educational Services: Reaching Independence through Supported Education program (RISE) program.

Along with being used in the clinical and educational space at SHU, our driving simulators are beneficial for automotive design research, traffic safety studies, and many other human sciences and driving rehab scenarios. Learn more about the RS 600, our most advanced research simulator, and the rest of our solutions and products here.

Please contact the DriveSafety team with any questions online or call 888-960-4854.