Photo: Toyota
Apart from the all-new Tacoma pickup, Toyota also brought its new TeenDrive365 distracted driving simulator which uses the Oculus Rift VR goggles to educate teens and even parents about the dangers of not keeping your eyes on the road ahead, a problem that is more common since the smartphones took our lives.
The simulator is built on an actual Toyota model to make the experience more real (although the graphics won’t blow anyone away). You just hop in the driver seat, put on the Oculus Rift and use the vehicle’s physical controls to drive virtually.
The challenge is to drive safe trying to ignore common distractions like traffic noises, the radio, in car chatter and even text messages, the numero uno cause making drivers take their eyes off the traffic.
“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,” said Marjorie Schussel, Corporate Marketing Director for Toyota. “This is just the latest example of how we’re helping teens and parents become safer drivers together through our ongoing TeenDrive365 initiative.”
The Oculus Rift device creates a 3D view with excellent depth and scale by presenting unique and parallel images for each eye (same way your eyes work, (it’s called binocular vision) and because they fill up the entire field of view, manage to create an unprecedented immersion feeling.
We’re glad Toyota found a noble purpose to this new technology, but we’re pretty sure it will have a huge success in the gaming world. Imagine how good will racing simulators be in the next couple of years when the Oculus Rift hits the shelves. The Tron motorcycle simulator is probabaly one of the most eloquent examples.
The challenge is to drive safe trying to ignore common distractions like traffic noises, the radio, in car chatter and even text messages, the numero uno cause making drivers take their eyes off the traffic.
“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,” said Marjorie Schussel, Corporate Marketing Director for Toyota. “This is just the latest example of how we’re helping teens and parents become safer drivers together through our ongoing TeenDrive365 initiative.”
The Oculus Rift device creates a 3D view with excellent depth and scale by presenting unique and parallel images for each eye (same way your eyes work, (it’s called binocular vision) and because they fill up the entire field of view, manage to create an unprecedented immersion feeling.
We’re glad Toyota found a noble purpose to this new technology, but we’re pretty sure it will have a huge success in the gaming world. Imagine how good will racing simulators be in the next couple of years when the Oculus Rift hits the shelves. The Tron motorcycle simulator is probabaly one of the most eloquent examples.
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