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Police using track & sim to train

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 11:51 am
by Horse
https://www.gamereactor.eu/news/602353/ ... s+driving/

On the BBC news yesterday, but this gives more detail.

PlayStation has partnered with the UK's Lincolnshire Police Force in order to offer supplementary training to specialist police drivers using upcoming sim racer Gran Turismo Sport, the latest in the long-running series of racing games.

Officials from GT Academy, a racing body that has trained racers for close to a decade, coached officers using an in-game regime to see if it could help their driving ability, supplementing their training they've already received as part of their job.

This was done by registering an initial lap time at the Silverstone track before the coaching, including the new VR mode, designed to improve and showcase efficiency. Issues like oversteer and braking late were identified, and the game showcased correct techniques and best practice instead. After said training, a second lap was undertaken by the officers, with significantly improved results, shaving 14 collective seconds off of their lap times, all showing improvements in areas like safety and stability.

Laurence Wiltshire, Project Director of GT Academy, said: "GT Academy has proven that the skills learned via Gran Turismo directly transfer from the virtual track on to the real one. This is thanks to the incredibly accurate simulation of the tracks but more importantly the simulation of the cars, their physics and how they handle. GT Sport is the best in the series history and, with the addition of VR mode, offers the most realistic driving simulation yet. It's one thing to train racing drivers but the idea that a game could help officers respond to emergencies more efficiently is mind-blowing."

Shaun West, Assistant Chief Constable, Lincolnshire Police, commented: "There will never be a replacement for traditional training methods but we are always looking for innovative ways to supplement the learning of our officers and staff. If Gran Turismo can help to train world class racing drivers, then we were keen to explore whether it could offer anything to our officers and help expand the way we think about evolving and refreshing our training methods."

Of course this isn't a substitute for police training, but it's great to see the game being used to improve the driving techniques this way. GT Sport itself will be released on October 18, this Wednesday. Will you be improving your own virtual racing this year?

Re: Police using track & sim to train

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:07 pm
by crr003
Issues like oversteer and braking late were identified, and the game showcased correct techniques and best practice instead.

Looking forward to the rewrite of Roadcraft.

Away from the Playstation world........VBH enjoying herself:
https://youtu.be/39kw8CjFB7k

WARNING - video features a Vauxhall.................

Re: Police using track & sim to train

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:10 pm
by GTR1400MAN
What is this supposed to prove? Simulators are good at learning repetitive tasks? Of course they got better, they'd never driven the track before. Race driving is all about exploring the limits, and then having another go ... you don't get another go on the road. It's not repetitive. It's different every time. A random generated road simulator would be good for learning though. I bet they'll get b*llocked if they steer like that when they are back at work (and once you start doing it, it is hard to stop).

Re: Police using track & sim to train

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 2:08 pm
by akirk
I think they drove the real track - and recorded a time...
then practised on the computer
then re-drove the real track and recorded a faster time

suggesting that the simulator helped improve their drive...

of course, with the game about to come out it is clearly a marketing stunt which is not very well grounded in science, but fun never-the-less!

Alasdair

Re: Police using track & sim to train

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 2:19 pm
by Horse
GTR1400MAN wrote: A random generated road simulator would be good for learning though.



Re: Police using track & sim to train

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:34 am
by dvenman
From that video above - 23 per cent of injuries to firefighters occur in vehicle crashes...

That's staggering. It would be interesting to understand the stats on a country by country basis and see how the top performers reduce injuries sustained just getting to an incident.

And in none of that video was "looking out the window and planning" mentioned.

Re: Police using track & sim to train

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 7:11 am
by Mr Cholmondeley-Warner
I loved the quote at the beginning - "we don't train driving to and from the fire scene". QED, methinks.

Re: Police using track & sim to train

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 2:04 pm
by Horse
crr003 wrote:
Issues like oversteer and braking late were identified

Looking forward to the rewrite of Roadcraft.


Why? Does Rc currently recommend oversteer and late braking? :shock:

Re: Police using track & sim to train

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 2:45 pm
by crr003
Horse wrote:
crr003 wrote:
Issues like oversteer and braking late were identified

Looking forward to the rewrite of Roadcraft.


Why? Does Rc currently recommend oversteer and late braking? :shock:

Oh - I thought they wanted them added in..........

When VBH versus Plod came up originally, Vonhosen suggested the test should have been going round the track the other way. The racer wouldn't have the track knowledge/braking references and it would have been a more level playing field.

Re: Police using track & sim to train

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 2:57 pm
by Horse
crr003 wrote: When VBH versus Plod came up originally, Vonhosen suggested the test should have been going round the track the other way. The racer wouldn't have the track knowledge/braking references and it would have been a more level playing field.


In this instance, I was going to wonder if 'all' the sim supplied was an easily-repeatable method for carrying out the training. Indeed, it's possible (and can happen and should be allowed for in research) that people learn and improve simply by repeating the 'test'.

However, it sems to suggest that, instead of 'racing driver Vs police driver', perhaps the software itself identified shortcomings and the staff interpreted and coached:
the new VR mode, designed to improve and showcase efficiency. Issues like oversteer and braking late were identified, and the game showcased correct techniques and best practice instead.

If that's the case, then the actual 'track' layout might be irrelevant, excepting that for 'road' training then the issues of blind bends, 'surprise horizon', etc. would need to be incorporated.