Toyota’s New Monster Driving Simulator - November 29th, 2007
Toyota will be using a massive simulator pod some 4.5 meters in height to test its vehicles and to hone its automotive safety features. The simulator is the first of its kind to move laterally and measures 35 meters end to end and 20 side to side. The device will allow Toyota’s engineers to analyze driver behavior under influences ranging from drowsiness to intoxication and also to conduct tests that are too dangerous out in the real world or that require a special set of conditions to meet the testing criteria.
The simulator is located at the company’s Higashifuji Technical Center south of Tokyo and near Mt. Fuji. The pod is designed to handle any model of car and the interior of the device is covered with a realistic, wrap-around screen to make it the most realistic driving simulator ever developed. (The view covers 40 miles of road in a 6-square kilometer section.) After some final adjustments the simulator will go into full-time operation in April.
I don’t imagine there’s a gamer in the world who wouldn’t like to get inside this thing and it makes me think back to the late 1970s when I played my first video game “simulation.” I was strapped in a flight seat with a joystick in a cockpit outfitted with a screen probably no bigger than the TV set in my living room today. The Toyota simulator is so realistic that some reporters who were just looking at the scenery while the thing was standing still became nauseated.
Maybe it’s just me, but I love knowing about the tech behind the tech. I don’t have any trips to Japan planned nor do I have a pass to walk on to the Toyota facility, but I’d love to get in this monster simulator and take it for a spin all the same.
Posted on November 29th, 2007 by Shorty
Filed under: technology |
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