Toyota builds the ultimate driving sim

[NordicNinja]

Nifty. It's a really good idea when you think about it. Flight simulators have been used effectively in the aviation industry for years. I haven't been inside a simulator in over a decade, I wish we had some pictures of the interior as it would be interesting to see how far the technology has come.

[E_Moelzer]

We did something like that (not so soffisticated however) 7 years ago for AVL- List GmbH.
In that case we modified a real Audi TT and used our own custom 3d- engine which was displayed on a 4 meter screen in front of the car. We created a 8 km long landscape and multiple difficult driving situations to see the drivers reactions. We even had realistic sounds with our own custom surround sound engine. The controls of the car were equipped with sensors and a separate car- physics simulation software (with separate computer) was used to simulate the behaviour of the car on our virtual road.
Sure the project from Toyota is a lot bigger (and certainly more expensive), but the purpose back then was the same: To evaluate the driving characteristics of a driver. AVL developed a device called AVL Drivability (or AVL Drive) for this purpose. The drivers characteristics were evaluated based on 8 criteria (sporty, comfort, aggressiveness, nervousness, skill, speed of reaction, economical, talent).
The simulator was first shown at Comm Graz 2000 a local tradeshow, then later made it to the SAE in Detroit and the „Equip Auto Congress“ in Paris.
It later was (or still is) on display in the technical museum in Vienna.
One thing worth noting about the project is that the drivability system was meant to be integrated into real cars, not just our simulator. I dont really know what happened to the original project in the end, but it seems that Toyotas simulator is more than just inspired by this (the article does not mention AVL, but I cant help the feeling that they are somehow involved with this).
Here is a link to an article about the Drive Simulator (in german) with a somewhat crappy photo of part of the installation:
http://www2.wkstmk.at/wko.at/stwi/stwi_archiv/stwi18_2004/industrie18_2004.pdf
CU
Elmar

[RobertoOrtiz]

Ok here are some images:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/drive-safely/toyotas-new-driving-simulator-looks-like-fairground-attraction-326240.php
http://www.motortrend.com/features/auto_news/2007/112_news260711_toyotas_driving_simulator/

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