Virtual Driving Tests for Older Adult Drivers?

Abstract

Driving ability is dependent on many skills within the purview and expertise of occupational therapy. In countries such as the United States and Australia, both the assessment and the training of driving skills are the focus of occupational therapists in helping older drivers. General practitioners have high expectations of the profession regarding the assessment and training of older drivers or drivers with special needs. This opinion piece summarises recent research into the use of driving simulators to improve the road safety of older adults by occupational therapists. Research confirms the high transferability of observations of driving behaviours between simulated driving and road assessment. The question remains: can the driving simulator be a clinical tool to screen out problematic older drivers before a more detailed but expensive road test is considered?