KEY POINTS:
Toyota has developed a massive driving simulator, designed to safely analyse driving characteristics and develop active safety technology.
The simulator, located at the company's Higashifuji Technical Centre in Japan, provides one of the world's most-realistic simulated driving environments.
Key to the virtual-reality experience is the use of a real car placed on a platform housed inside a 7.1m diameter dome, the inside of which serves as a giant 360-degree video screen.
As the driver operates the vehicle, a tilt mechanism, vibration apparatus and other devices manipulate the dome, which can be moved around an area the equivalent of four tennis courts, under precision computer control.
The result is a realistic simulation of the sensation of driving, including a sense of speed, acceleration and riding comfort through turns and other driving manoeuvres.
The simulator will mainly be used to analyse driving characteristics under such conditions as falling asleep at the wheel and drowsiness, glancing from side to side and not checking that the road is safe, fatigue or illness, as well as developing active safety technology for effectively reducing the number of accidents.
